This special issue examines why the European Union has struggled to reduce its regulatory complexity despite decades of simplification initiatives. Rather than treating simplification as a technical problem, the call frames it as a fundamentally political process involving conflicting interests, competing values, and strategic actors. The issue seeks to understand the gap between EU commitments to simplification and their limited concrete results.
The special issue invites research across three dimensions: the actors involved in promoting or resisting simplification and how they form coalitions; the institutional processes and mechanisms through which simplification efforts unfold; and the actual outcomes and conditions under which simplification succeeds, fails, or produces unintended consequences. Research employing qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, or computational approaches is welcome, and submissions from early-career researchers are particularly encouraged.