Ursula von der Leyen wants companies in the EU to provide officials with the same details just once, with AI helping public bodies use them. The European Commission president made the pitch on Monday, Politico reported, citing a copy of her speech.
She spoke at a closed-door gathering of the European People’s Party, her centre-right political group, in Taormina, Sicily.
Businesses waste time reporting the same details again and again to different authorities, Ursula von der Leyen argued, and neither they nor Europe can afford that.
“And this is why we will introduce ‘Only Once’, to report data only once – and with the help of AI the administration will ensure efficient use,” she said, according to Politico.
It is the first time she has openly proposed using AI to lighten the paperwork companies face.
The idea of reporting only once is not new, though, as the Commission already built it into its EU Inc. proposal in March. That plan would create a single company structure that works across all member states.
Under EU Inc., firms could file their details once through an EU-wide online portal, and authorities would share the data among themselves. That plan, however, does not mention AI.
Von der Leyen also gave no details on how an AI-based system would work, which companies it would cover, or when the Commission plans to introduce it.
In the same speech, she urged national governments to sign a pact on gold-plating. That is the practice of adding additional national rules when transposing EU laws into national law.
“A rule agreed at European level cannot become more complex when transposed or implemented nationally,” she wrote in a letter to EU leaders on Monday, Politico reported.
Under the pact, each government would have to list and explain any rules it adds on top of EU law. It would also have to assess how those rules affect businesses and the single market, according to the European Commission.
The push is part of the Commission’s wider effort to cut red tape, which has already reopened digital laws such as the GDPR and the AI Act.
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