Commission initiatives requiring an impact assessment

Impact assessments (IA) are necessary for the most important Commission initiatives and those having the most far reaching impacts.

They are prepared for

• legislative proposals which have significant economic, social and environmental impacts
• non-legislative initiatives (white papers, action plans, expenditure programmes, negotiating guidelines for international agreements) which define future policies
• certain implementing measures (so called 'comitology' items) and delegated acts which are likely to have significant impacts.

Each year, the Secretariat General, involving the Impact Assessment Board and the Commission departments, screen all forthcoming initiatives and decides for which an impact assessment is needed.

All above mentioned initiatives are preceded by a roadmap.