EU Bureaucracy 101

Germany has earned itself a reputation for having a particularly rigid bureaucracy. A recent survey commissioned by the German Embassy in Washington, DC, found that although Americans share a largely positive view of Germans, widespread stereotypes persist of the Germans as a "meticulous" and "rule-abiding" people.

But in the case of the European Union, the rules are sometimes too complicated to comprehend, let alone abide by.

The EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Poland's Danuta Hübner, appears to have recognized this. But like the EU rulebook, her solution is sure to baffle even the most enlightened observer. Hübner wants to introduce a new multi-million-euro program, with the sole purpose of elucidating three other multi-million-euro programs.

Germany opposed

"The EU's regional policy brings people together," Hübner said. That may be true -- but because no one seems to know exactly how it all works, Hübner has set out to educate regional politicians. The name for her effort, perhaps just as ambiguous as the program itself, is the "Interact II Program."

For a total of 40 million euros ($54.6 million), the EU Commission plans to build four new information centers throughout Europe -- in Vienna, Austria; Valencia, Spain; Vyborg, Russia; and Turku, Finland -- in order to reveal unto local administrations some of the deeper mysteries of European law.

Wary of crossing the EU Commission, most the bloc's member states gave the undertaking their tacit nod of approval. But of all people to dissent with bureaucratic principles, the Germans have come out in strong opposition to Hübner's new initiative.

An official at the German Ministry of Economics told Spiegel Online that if the EU rulebook is "baffling and unmanageable," then Brussels needs to simplify it. It makes no sense, the official added, to "saddle it with new 'understand-bureaucracy' programs."

The online version of the German news magazine also quoted an internal government document criticizing the "latest laughing stock from Euroland," as one ministerial aide called Hübner's program. The official memo describes Interact II as "a showcase for the EU's misguided bureaucracy."

Small government, Euro-style

Germany does not intend to prevent Interact II from becoming a reality. Berlin is far more interested in the "symbolic effect" of its dissent.

"Despite our doubts, we will not impede the program," the government memo read, adding that this constitutes a "sufficient concession" to the EU Commission and the consenting EU member states.

It is not the first time that Germany has taken the lead in the struggle to contain what is largely viewed as the EU's monstrous and mushrooming bureaucracy. Ahead of a weekend conference of European finance officials in Würzburg, German Economics Minister Michael Glos told the dpa news agency that "the amount of bureaucratic work caused by EU law has to be reduced."

As current holders of the rotating EU presidency, Germany has decreed that the EU must reduce its overhead and administrative costs -- the greenhouse gases of bureaucracy -- by 25 percent by 2012. Glos said Germany will pursue this goal persistently under the leadership of EU President Angela Merkel and German Science Minister Annette Schavan.