An invisible 80 billion tax for businesses. This would be the weight of the bureaucracy on the coffers of Italian companies, according to what was estimated by the Cgia of Mestre. The Study Center of the Association of Artisans and Small companies denounces the high levels of inefficiency of the Public Administration, among the worst in Europe especially in terms of response times.
Sandoms that have a cost and represent “an unbearable burden that ‘crushes’ above all the micro -enterprises, forced to juggle between modules to be filled in, documents to be produced, stamps to be affixed and interminable files to the public branches just to obtain simple information”.
The CGIA study
In the study of the Cgia of Mestre they underline how the average times for the Release of permits And authorizations by the Italian PAs are among the highest in Europe, due to “a way of” a level of digitalization of public services still too low “.
Although the association underlines the “tips of excellence” of international scope in health, research, university and Italian security sector, the slow procedures Of the bureaucracy in our country they subtract time and resources from the whole network of SMEs.
For the experts of the Cgia la “broken” machine of the state cannot keep up with the epochal changes in progress and the difficulties in the public administration are chronic, especially “especially in many regions of the South, where inefficiency constitutes a characteristic trait of these public realities”.
Italian bureaucracy among the worst in Europe
In comparison with the other EU countries, it is evident that the PA obstacle path affects significantly on the activity of Italian companies. From what emerged from the results of an investigation carried out by the European Investment Bank (Bei), the 90% of the tricolor SMEs He declared to dedicate part of the staff to fulfill the regulatory obligations.
A highest percentage Compared to other large countries such as France, where the share of employees dedicated to bureaucratic practices stands at 87 percent, Germany, where it went down to 84 and Spain, 82, but also worse than the EU average, 86%.
From the analysis of the Bei, it is also that 24% of Italian entrepreneurs say they commit more than 10% of the employees on the processing of all obligations and legal obligations, a share of staff designated in France by 14% of employers interviewed, by 11% in Spain and Germany, with an average in the European Union of 17%.
PA of the South last in the EU
The picture is even worse if you go down to a territorial level. According to the periodic investigation conducted by the University of Gothenburg on the quality of the service of the PA of 210 EU regionsin 2024 the Italian public administrations marked modest results, at the bottom of the ranking if we consider the South.
The first region of Italy in the ranking is the Friuli Venezia Giuliain 63rd place in the European Union, followed by the autonomous province of Trento (81 °), Liguria (95 °) and the autonomous province of Bolzano (96 °).
At the last places the services of the public offices of the South, with the Puglia Region in 195th position, Calabria in 197th, the Molise and Sicily at the quartetteim and third last place, 207th and 208th.
