The European Commission is a top performer when it comes to better regulation, according to the latest OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook, which was published on 10 October 2018. The report maps country efforts to improve regulatory quality in line with the 2012 OECD Recommendation on Regulatory Policy and Governance. Tested on a series of indicators, the Commission ranks first on stakeholder engagement and is in the top three for impact assessment and ex post evaluation (which involves an assessment of whether regulations have in fact achieved their objectives). Of all the countries and institutions reviewed by the OECD, the Commission is the only one to score highly on all key indicators. Lorna Schrefler, policy expert in DG FISMA, explains the Commission's better regulation strategy in more detail.

Quality, transparency and openness

For over a decade, the Commission has implemented a comprehensive better regulation strategy to ensure the quality, transparency and openness of its decision-making process. This effort covers the entire policy-cycle, from the design of a piece of legislation/policy, through adoption, implementation, evaluation and review. Since the very beginning, the Commission’s approach has been ambitious both in scope (it applies to legal acts like directives and regulations, to delegated and implementing acts, but can also cover action plans and communications) and in content (an integrated system covering the economic, social and environmental impacts of policies). In this way, it has helped provide a sound evidence base to EU decision-makers and ensure that EU legislation remains fit for purpose.

Implementing better regulation throughout the Commission has been a learning process, leading to changes in the working methods and the thinking of its staff. It has now become an integral and challenging feature of ‘the ways things are done’ in the Commission.

In recent years, the better regulation toolkit has been refined and broadened. New analytical approaches have been explored and additional opportunities created to allow stakeholders to contribute to decision-making. For instance, nowadays stakeholders can provide feedback on a new initiative at a much earlier stage (thanks to roadmaps – succinct overviews of what the Commission plans to do and by when); and open public consultations are usually online for 12 weeks, providing sufficient time for feedback. It is now also possible to comment on secondary legislation (delegated and implementing acts) before its adoption. This increases the accessibility of a portion of EU decision-making that has often been considered a ‘closed book’ by the public.

Fitness checks

Due to the complexity of EU legislation and the growing interconnection between policies (think about climate change), the Commission has also started complementing the traditional evaluation of individual pieces of legislation with ‘fitness checks’ of entire policy sectors. Fitness checks uncover inconsistencies, overlaps, and cumulative effects generated by different but related legislative acts. These ‘blind spots’ would be difficult to detect by looking at each piece of legislation separately.

In this context, DG FISMA has completed 17 impact assessments and five evaluations in the past two years. Moreover, it is currently carrying out two major fitness checks – on supervisory reporting and public reporting by companies – to ensure that financial sector legislation remains relevant and effective. These activities directly contribute to the priorities of the Juncker Commission, in particular on achieving a deeper and fairer Internal Market with a strengthened industrial base.

‘‘From the very beginning, this Commission set out to change both what the European Union does and the way it does it. Our Better Regulation agenda was meant to be – and has been – instrumental to this transformation,’’ said First Vice-President Frans Timmermans at the second annual Conference on Regulatory Scrutiny in the EU in June 2018. ‘‘Maybe it is not always visible but it is a day-to-day reality.’’

Read more on the Commission’s better regulation agenda