On Monday 15 April, the European Commission welcomed the clear progress - in terms of transparency, impact assessments and simplification - made over the last four years in the drafting of legislative texts at European level, while recognising that there is still room for improvement.
There is widespread recognition that: "we’re leading by example”, in the drafting of legislation, said the first Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, when he presented an overview of the Better Regulation programme introduced in 2015.
He praised the European institution's efforts to present a legislative text only if necessary, in full respect of the principle of subsidiarity and based as often as possible on an evaluation of the existing situation and an impact assessment of future rules.
Among the improvements welcomed, the Commissioner cited a process facilitating stakeholder participation through prior consultations and increased transparency. Efforts have also been made to simplify the rules.
Nevertheless, according to Mr Timmermans, there is still room for improvement in the impact assessments accompanying legislative proposals.
Between 2015 and 2018, 8.5% of the legislative proposals announced in the Commission work programmes were not supported by an impact assessment. “This proportion is higher than we would have desired, but it should be seen in the prevailing political context and the pressing need to respond quickly to developments such as those in the migration and security fields”, the European institution said in a communication released on Monday.
The 'Better Regulation’ process is "not yet irreversible”, Timmermans also noted. To anchor it definitively in the future, the Commission has identified some avenues of work, including recommended efforts in terms of "simplification”.
More attention should also be paid to the evaluation of European legislation, with the Commission noting objections raised by stakeholders regarding "objectivity". This situation is linked in particular to divergent practices between the Commission, the European Parliament and the EU Council, despite the commitments made in the 2015 Interinstitutional Agreement (see EUROPE 11453/21).
The Commission also urges the other EU institutions to take greater ownership of the process of improving legislative quality. In particular, it cites the example of the 'gold-plating’ that Member States sometimes add when transposing European legislation into national law.
Member States have the right to do so, but if they do this, they must make it clear that it comes from them and not from the European Union, Timmermans said.
On Monday 29 April, a conference on the Better Regulation programme will take place in Brussels.
Comitology. However, neither the Communication nor the Commission's working document refers to the March 2017 legislative proposal to introduce more transparency and accountability into the comitology procedure, which was criticised, in particular, on the renewal of glyphosate on the market (see EUROPE 11725/14).
This text is at a standstill both in the European Parliament, where the rapporteur József Szájer (EPP, Hungary) has yet to submit a draft report, and in the EU Council.
See documents published by the Commission: http://bit.ly/2V0zMSD. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)