Brussels, 21/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 21 March, the European Commission published its revised proposals for regulatory cooperation as part of the future EU-US free trade agreement (TTIP). The proposals were presented to the US side during the 12th round of technical level negotiations at the end of February.
Good practice. The first text is a proposal for a TTIP chapter on good practice on regulatory cooperation (available at: http://goo.gl/F7YuVI ).
This proposal provides for the two sides to maintain domestic coordination mechanisms or processes in order to strengthen good regulatory practice (including transparent planning, public consultation, impact assessments and retrospective assessments of regulatory acts). The proposal also provides for the two sides to publish a description of the processes or mechanisms used by their regulatory authorities to develop and revise regulatory acts (including applicable guidelines, rules or procedures which will enable the public to participate in the development of these acts).
The proposal also provides for the two sides to publish a list, at least once a year, detailing the main regulatory acts that are planned and giving information on the scope and objectives of these acts. It contains arrangements for public consultations and impact assessments.
Annual programme. The second text is a proposal for a chapter on regulatory cooperation (available at: http://goo.gl/Pla31B ). It contains a part which is defined and a second part which is not yet defined, and relates to the establishment of an institutional mechanism.
In the defined part of the text, there is a new proposal for the two sides to develop an annual regulatory cooperation programme in which the regulatory authorities will define priority initiatives on regulatory cooperation, with the support of a consultation group comprising representatives from business (including SMEs), unions and interest groups.
Continuation of work on RCB. The second text does not, however, contain any proposal for the institutional framework, and the Commission must still work on this. In its first proposal of the regulatory cooperation text, tabled in February 2015, the EU made a proposal for a regulatory cooperation body (RCB), which would be responsible for monitoring the ongoing areas of cooperation and for planning new ones (see EUROPE 11250).
Series of other proposals ranging from customs to GI. In addition to these two proposals, the Commission published a series of other proposals on Monday as part of its transparency initiative. These include, randomly, trade in goods and customs duties, agriculture, non-tariff issues, wines and spirits, the provision of services, delivery services, customs and trade facilitation, intellectual property and geographical indications (GI). These documents are available at: http://goo.gl/PLfkZQ . (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)