Brussels – During a plenary debate at the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Csaba Borboly, Vice-President of Harghita County Council, argued that the European Union’s simplification agenda often fails not because of Brussels, but because of rigid national bureaucracies.
He pointed out that in several Member States, including Romania, national administrations often multiply and overcomplicate European requirements, sometimes to protect their own institutional positions. In doing so, they hinder genuine cooperation between local authorities.
National implementation must also be simplified
Csaba Borboly called on the European Committee of the Regions to extend the simplification agenda beyond EU legislation itself and address how rules are implemented at national level.
He proposed requiring Member States to publicly justify any additional layers of complexity they add to European rules.
Linguistic rights are not an administrative burden
Particular emphasis was placed on the linguistic rights of national and ethnic minorities.
Csaba Borboly argued that guaranteeing these rights is not an administrative burden, even when it requires additional resources and procedures. On the contrary, it is a real test of whether simplification genuinely brings Europe closer to its citizens.
This principle is particularly important for minority, rural and border regions across the European Union, as well as for communities along the EU’s external borders that are affected by regional instability.
European principles must be put into practice locally
The intervention reinforced the broader direction reflected in recent opinions and amendments of the European Committee of the Regions: stronger administrative capacity for small, border and minority-populated regions, together with user-friendly and multilingual digital public services in both Member States and candidate countries.
Csaba Borboly stressed that Europe’s credibility with its citizens – from Harghita County to the EU’s eastern neighbourhood – depends on whether these principles are translated into practice on the ground, not merely agreed upon in Brussels.