The European Commission is conducting an extensive review of its own administration, establishing 15 separate workstreams to investigate how the institution might become more efficient. The exercise, commissioned by Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to produce recommendations by the end of 2026. It is an encouraging development. Brussels has finally recognised that its bureaucracy might be excessively complicated and has responded by dividing the problem into fifteen administrative processes.
The review examines the Commission's organisation, working methods and previous reform efforts. Experts will study existing procedures, collect recommendations and determine how thousands of officials might eventually spend less time navigating procedures. Naturally, simplifying an institution requires considerable preparation. One cannot simply remove unnecessary paperwork without first producing sufficient paperwork to establish which paperwork is unnecessary.
The Commission insists the exercise will help create a more agile administration. Whether the recommendations will actually reduce bureaucracy remains to be seen. For now, Brussels has achieved something remarkable: it has created fifteen separate streams of administrative work dedicated to discovering why there is too much administrative work.
If the investigation fails, there is always the possibility of establishing a sixteenth workstream to determine what went wrong. Preferably with its own budget, secretariat and annual conference.