Tackling regulatory gold-plating under the Irish EU Presidency
Regulatory gold-plating remains a persistent catalyst for European market fragmentation. This is when national governments add extra rules, costs, or administrative burdens when adopting standard EU laws. As outlined in the European Commission's Better Regulation framework, gold-plating typically manifests through four operational barriers: more stringent national norms, redundant administrative procedures, divergent interpretative guidance, and disproportionate enforcement measures.
While domestic governments frequently frame supplementary requirements as elevated consumer or environmental safeguards, the practical result for enterprise is regulatory duplication and administrative friction. For businesses driving the green transition, diverging national requirements fragment the EU Single Market, inflating compliance costs and complicating cross-border supply chains.
The European Commission launched a public consultation for stakeholders on regulatory gold-plating as part of its work creating a toolkit of best practices and criteria to help Member States to identify and avoid gold-plating in the national transposition and implementation of EU legislation. We welcome opportunities such as this one to provide the views of Irish business, as the Single Market remains one of the EU’s most valuable assets for businesses across Ireland and the EU.
Ibec consulted broadly across all sectors of the Irish economy who are represented in membership to collect examples and contribute to concrete policy change. The value of this consultation for our member companies is demonstrated by the volume of responses received. We have shared this consultation response with key officials in the Commission, the European Parliament, the Irish Permanent Representation and the Irish Government.
To build on this agenda, Ibec co-hosted an event with BusinessEurope on the One Europe, One Market Roadmap in Ibec's Brussels office. Here, Fergal O'Brien, Executive Director of Policy, Lobbying and Global Affairs in Ibec, raised gold-plating as an issue that Ibec membership are facing to the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, Head of Cabinet for European Commission Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné, and relevant officials from the Commission, Council, Irish Government, and Permanent Representations from Ireland and other Member States.
The empirical evidence submitted highlights critical friction points across key environmental, social, and governance (ESG) legislative files. In circular packaging, France’s AGEC legislation introduced pre-emptive sorting labels (such as Triman and Info-Tri) and unilateral single-use plastic reduction targets ahead of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), forcing retailers into bespoke, market-specific packaging assessments. Similarly, transposition of the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT) Directive demonstrates severe divergence: while Member States move at varying speeds regarding transition arrangements for compliant stock, Spain’s draft legislation imposes extreme restrictions on corporate names containing environmental references and mandates non-neutral animal welfare packaging imagery. Further fragmentation arises from unilateral French PFAS bans ahead of harmonised EU restrictions, alongside national repairability indices and material disclosures exceeding baseline REACH obligations. Rather than advancing environmental standards, these isolated national obligations generate administrative complexity and divert resources from decarbonisation.
Simplification and tackling costly administrative and regulatory burden and fragmentation is a priority for the Irish Government as it leads negotiations at the Competitiveness Council during its Council of the EU Presidency. Positioned at the midpoint of the EU institutional cycle, Ireland’s Presidency offers a strategic window to steer the legislative agenda toward Single Market integration.
Anchored by the central themes of Competitiveness, Security, and Values, and guided by the One Europe, One Market Roadmap, the Government is committing to decisive progress on regulatory simplification through EU omnibus packages. Translating this high-level political ambition into a streamlined, business-friendly regulatory framework requires dismantling national gold-plating, securing cross-institutional buy-in, and installing solid governance structures to take action on Single Market integration across Member States and in the EU institutions.
We continue to welcome any examples of barriers our members face in the EU Single Market, or examples of regulatory gold-plating, and encourage members to notify Róisín de Bhaldraithe, Senior EU Policy Executive, Ibec at roisin.debhaldraithe@ibec.ie.
