On 19 May, The European Commission adopted its Better Regulation Agenda. This comprehensive package of reforms covering the entire policy cycle will boost openness and transparency in the EU decision-making process, improve the quality of new laws through better impact assessments of draft legislation and amendments, and promote constant and consistent review of existing EU laws, so that EU policies achieve their objectives in the most effective and efficient way.
In that respect, on the 21st of May, European Policy Centre invited Vice-President Timmermans to speak out on the New Better Regulation package of the European Commission, its necessity, key areas, and how it will be implemented in practice. According to Mr. Timmermans the new Better Regulation consists of: more transparency and consultation, involvement of stakeholders, clarity in responsibilities, keeping existing laws under review, better impact assessments and quality control.
New Better Regulation is about better EU rule making and how the national parliaments fit in, letting always the Member States to decide that. He also highlighted that the decision-making role remains political, making clear that the aforementioned Strategy is not about to change goals, but to push decision-makers to take decisions. Conversely, he expressed a clear ‘No’ on EC college votes being made public.
It will be implemented in three phases namely: a)the Regulatory Scrutiny Board which will be composed by 3 Members of the Commission and 3 outsiders – independent experts in order to bring scrutiny and discipline to the Commission’s work, b)the Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT) with two platforms, one with representatives of each MS and one with stakeholders, trade unions, NGOs, European Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions, c)Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, Commission and the Council to be reached by the end of the year, although the trilogues between these 3 institutions on new legislation should be more political and not be nominated by experts as it used to do so
Vice-President referred to this new Agenda as a culture change with ultimate goal making life easier for EU citizens, SMEs and businesses, cutting the red tape. On the impact assessments issue, where Commission is strengthening its approach to impact assessment and evaluations to improve the evidence base which underpins all legislative proposals, without prejudice to political decisions, he added he wants EC to be as open as possible to all feedback, from all levels of government and stakeholders. To elaborate on that, the New Package will provide the ground for changes not only in the primary legislation, but in the secondary one to wit delegated and implementing acts.
In conclusion, Vice-President Timmermans said ‘We’re building a new kitchen, but we’re not cooking anything yet – don’t judge before we can get to work” and added that there must have been merit in Brussels for checking up on existing legislation, not just in creating new legislation.