Fighting bureaucracy, as a prerequisite for enhancing economic growth, is among the top priorities of many countries. In the US and Argentina, the approach is radical, characterised by large-scale horizontal cuts to government programmes and personnel.

President Trump favours a shift in priorities from social sectors to industrial and commercial policy, reflecting distrust of state interventionism and promoting a reduction of the role of the state, even in areas that traditionally belong to the domain of governments, such as education, health and so on.

In Europe, where, according to a study by the Economic Policy Forum, a significant reduction in bureaucracy could add 4.6 per cent to GDP per capita, the approach is different. It focuses on improving the regulatory framework and reducing the administrative burden on businesses, a policy widely labelled as “better regulation.”

The goal is not to shrink the size of the state but rather the improvement of the effectiveness of its intervention.

In this context, key policy tools include streamlining the responsibilities of government services in order to improve service delivery to citizens (‘one-stop shop’), promoting digitalisation so that businesses and citizens can communicate with government services online, simplifying administrative procedures and reducing the number of documents and compliance requirements.

Artificial intelligence is emerging as a useful tool for reducing bureaucracy, through automating processes, intelligently routing requests and optimising decisions through detailed data analysis. Its integration into public services reduces processing time, limits errors and enhances transparency.

An additional important parameter is the amendment of existing laws and regulations, rather than pursuing the ‘easy’ solution of adding new laws, which tend to make the overall legislative and regulatory framework more complex.

In the European Commission and several European countries, task forces have been established to guide and coordinate the effort to reduce bureaucracy.

Moreover, dedicated legislation has been enacted for the mandatory and detailed quantification of the burden of new laws through a systematic assessment of their economic, social and environmental impact, thus enabling the selection of those laws that convey the lowest possible burden on businesses and citizens.

In this regard, the legislator is required to demonstrate that the new law is necessary given the administrative burden it causes and that the intended result cannot be achieved through other, less cumbersome means, such as regulations or government circulars.

In Cyprus, efforts to adopt the better regulation framework have not yet been successful, hence the legislative framework remains complex.

Further reforms in the public sector should focus on reducing the fragmentation of decision-making between ministries, simplifying procedures and clearly demarcating responsibilities, with the aim of reducing processing time and enhancing efficiency.

At the European level, complaints about excessive bureaucracy and demands for drastic simplification of procedures are increasing, as a component of the development and growth agenda.

However, the relevant initiatives of the European Commission and countries, such as Germany, are viewed as not ambitious enough and are met with scepticism.

Andreas Charalambous and Omiros Pissarides are economists and the views they express are personal