Flash Eurobarometer 451 (Business Perceptions of Regulation)

Attitudes of businesses towards EU legislation on companies.<br>Topics: assessment of EU legislation with regard to own company as supportive or as an obstacle; attitude towards the following statements on EU legislation on companies: companies benefit from reducing differences between EU member states, legislation is an obstacle to innovation, improves access to suppliers and customers, increases the cost of administrative processes, helps companies to be competitive, increases bureaucracy in the company, encourages investments, hampers growth of the company, creates equal conditions for competition, helps ensure quality and safety of products and services; development of regulatory costs in selected areas in the last financial year: VAT, workplace health and safety, consumer protection, safety, labour market, environment, energy and climate; assessment of the difficulty to comply with legislation in the aforementioned areas; assessment of the amount of time needed for selected tasks: understanding requirements, completing paperwork, provision of the same information to different authorities, keeping up to date with regulatory changes; reasons for not complaining about administrative tasks with regard to legislation.

Demography: information about the company: number of employees, year of company establishment, development of the number of employees since January 2015; independent or part of national or international group; activities of the company in the following locations in the last twelve months: country where business is established, one or two other EU countries, three or more other EU countries, outside the EU; total turnover in 2016; development of turnover since January 2015; intention to do the following within the next two years: launch new products or services, use new selling channels, expand to other EU countries, expand to countries outside the EU, invest in fixed assets, create new jobs; self-rated knowledge of the origin of legislation applying to company; awareness of actions aiming at simplifying administrative tasks linked to legislation: in the own country, in other EU countries, at EU level; complaints with regard to administrative tasks linked to legislation made in the last two years.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; country; NACE-Code; nation group; weighting factor.