According to the European Commission, EU companies saved €500m (£370m) in 2007 thanks to its bureaucracy-busting measures. This is the latest result of Commissioner Verheugen's red-tape bonfire, which has destroyed roughly 300 legal acts, representing about 5,000 pages of the community rule book.

This is impressive stuff. The EC has focused on reducing information obligations and compliance costs in areas such as company law, statistics and agriculture. If you work in the transport sector, or if you run a limited liability company, the story doesn't end here.

This year, a simplification of mergers and divisions of limited liability companies will free up more than 600,000 companies from costly expert reporting. A simplification of transport documentation rules will lighten the load for more than 300,000 freight carriers. The commission reckons this will result in a further saving of €800m (£590m). Other actions include rationalising 14 existing directives covering EU insurance law into a single directive.

Scrapping 5,000 pages of the EU rule book is no mean feat and must be deeply satisfying for Verheugen, who has made it his mission to encourage enterprise. But another 90,000 pages remain and business groups have been quick to point out that even this progress is too slow if the EU is to cut administrative burdens by 25 per cent before 2012. They rightly point the finger of blame at the council and European parliament, which have still to acquire an appetite for reform.

Of course, the greatest shadow being cast over progress comes from the EU constitution, or Lisbon Treaty. Cutting red tape in one area is all well and good, but handing power over employment law to the European Court of Justice will see even more red tape pop up elsewhere.

Still, the commission's recent progress report does represent a step in the right direction, if for no other reason than it demonstrates that attitudes towards regulation are beginning to shift. More of the same, please.