In response, the EU executive announced a package of measures to do just that in December, answering longstanding complaints that it takes too long to build in Europe. Slow permitting was cited as a major block to European competitiveness in former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s landmark 2024 report.
But the Commission’s proposal has left the capitals hungry for more freedom to manage their own permitting laws, reflecting broader disagreement between Brussels and member countries over how to effectively simplify the EU’s policy landscape.
“Member states need enough flexibility to set their own [permitting] procedures,” said the Croatian Minister for Environmental Protection and Green Transition Marija Vučković during a meeting of environment ministers in Brussels last week.
“At present permitting procedures are being accelerated across too many different EU legal acts,” which creates “administrative burden” and “confusion for companies,” the Estonian Minister for Energy and the Environment Andres Sutt said.
Their simplification would “work better if related requirements were established in one consolidated and harmonized act,” he added.
The Commission, so far, is refusing to budge. “We believe that the framework we are proposing is flexible enough to align with national structures,” a Commission official familiar with the proposal told POLITICO. During the environment ministers’ gathering, Brussels environment boss Jessika Roswall had told countries the EU executive’s proposal “strikes the right balance.”