On Wednesday 18 February, the Swedish government published a non-paper on the ‘Better Regulation’ policy in preparation for the European Commission’s announced reform of its decision-making processes, in which it welcomed an “important step in safeguarding against the EU ending up in the same situation of massive simplification efforts in the future” (see EUROPE 13781/21).
“Enhancing the EU’s competitiveness, growth and innovation require continued efforts to simplify regulatory frameworks, and the tools supporting the legislative procedure need to better reflect the challenges surrounding the current regulatory landscape”, the document continues.
It is therefore “essential that any reform of the Better Regulation policy clearly reflect a willingness to apply a regulatory restraint ensuring that new rules are introduced only when clearly necessary and that proposals that are presented have an impact assessment that can serve as a solid evidence base throughout the legislative procedure”.
Any additional costs associated with revising the ‘Better Regulation’ policy should also be covered by reallocating existing EU budgetary resources.
The ‘competitiveness check’, including guaranteeing single market consistency, must be central to the impact assessment.
And “major amendments introduced during negotiations could be subject to a proportionate, streamlined assessment of potential burden”, Sweden also points out.
Link to the document: https://aeur.eu/f/kve (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)