Licence to transform: SWOT analysis of industrial permitting in Europe - a BusinessEurope survey

Between May and June 2023, BusinessEurope surveyed 240 companies across 21 European countries, with 35% of those being SMEs, about their experiences with EU permitting processes. The results of this study confirmed our concerns that, in today's very competitive global scene where speed is of strategic importance, long and complex industrial permitting hinders companies’ green and digital transformation and the EU’s global competitiveness.

For example, around 60% of responding companies have to wait over a year and up to 6 years for a permitting approval; 83% find the complexity and duration of permitting are an obstacle to investing in the EU. They report challenges with public authorities – speed and lack of coordination – as well as complications and uncertainty around EU and national regulations. Our key competitors, like the US and China, face challenges in this area as well, but they have specific provisions like time limits to help address some of these difficulties. The EU has also taken steps in the right direction but more needs to be done. The EU industry needs its ‘licence to transform’ at speed.

The top three actions that survey respondents wanted to see taken to improve and speed up EU permitting were:

• Time limits for the granting of permits by authorities (86%);
• Increased communication between companies and authorities (82%);
• Allowing an early start of projects/construction (79%).

Please also read here our related press release.