CEPS: Too good to be true? A quick assessment of the European Commission’s new Better Regulation Package

21 May 2015

Initial impressions on the content of this remarkable set of new documents, which will shape the way in which EU policies will be prepared, shaped, monitored and evaluated in the years to come.

On 19 May 2015, the European Commission published a very comprehensive, ambitious and innovative Better Regulation package, which contains new guidelines on various phases of the policy cycle and various documents setting out the rules and functioning of entirely new consultation platforms and a new body in charge of regulatory scrutiny.

Before analysing the content of the new package, it is important to explain the context in which the new package has been introduced. As some commentators have noted, the Juncker Commission has started its mandate with the right foot on Better Regulation. The appointment of a First Vice President with a specific mandate on better regulation and institutional relations seemed to promise a bright future for the quality of EU legislation. Indeed, the agenda on the table of Mr Timmermans looked challenging from the very outset: besides the review of the impact assessment guidelines, the publication of the long-awaited guidelines on ex-post evaluation and an upgrade of the EU’s consultation practices, the most challenging tasks included the review of the Inter-institutional Agreement on Better Law-making, the reform of the Impact Assessment Board and the long-standing battle to convince member states to adopt better regulation tools when implementing legislation.  

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