A simple demand – smarter regulation

1. A simple demand – smarter regulation Stephen White European Commission

2. PREPARATION Ex-ante evaluation/Impact Assessment EVALUATION Ex-post evaluation ADOPTION Revision/new measure IMPLEMENTATION Monitoring Smart regulation Improving legislation at all stages of the policy cycle

3. Smart Regulation is about the whole policy cycle must remain a shared responsibility of the European institutions and of Member States is about strengthening the voice of citizens and other stakeholders 8 October 2010, COM(2010) 543

4. Looking forward – Impact Assessment

5. The Rationale behind Impact Assessment • Make better proposals • Changed two-thirds of our proposals, often significantly • Promote coherence – consider social, economic and environmental impacts • Transparent and open decision making • Show consideration given to a proposal

6. Common sense questions • Was right procedure followed incl stakeholder consultation? • What is the problem?  Evaluation as input • What are the objectives? • What policy options exist? • What are the impacts and trade-offs? • Future monitoring and evaluation?

7. What is Impact Assessment? • Not a substitute for political judgement! • One system, applied to all Commission proposals • 600 or so available on the web • Never fully quantified • Takes time and money to do properly

8. The final product • Commission Staff Working Paper so only translate Executive Summary (no more than 30 pages)

9. Impact Assessment Board • Launched by President Baroso on 14 November 2006 • « Independent body » to ensure good quality of the Commission impact assessments • No escape – examines them all • Resubmission rate of around 40% • Stops a proposal going ahead until passed • Quality bar increasing over time

10. Outside the Commission • The Inter Institutional Agreement • European Parliament and Council will assess the impact of substantial amendments (eg Batteries amendment) • The three institutions agreed common approach to impact assessment • Member States • For many, analysis is not systematic or transparent

11. What makes it work • Quality check • Commitment (not voluntary – turkeys don’t vote for Christmas) • Start early… • External scrutiny • Integrated (economic, environmental, social) • Support and advice throughout • Resource-intensive, but the best way to get a good process and product and to influence decisions • Good evidence base as to what has worked and what the problems are

12. Looking back – Evaluation

13. Evaluation – a political priority

14. Reinforcing the use of evaluation Evaluation, what and why ? Evaluation is the main tool used by the Commission to assess the extent to which EU interventions reach the set policy objectives and how their performance can be improved in the future. Well-conducted evaluations can help improving the relevance, effectiveness and cost- effectiveness of public interventions and evaluation can increase the transparency and accountability concerning EU expenditure. Communication SEC(2007)213 of 21.2.2007. Responding to Strategic Needs: Reinforcing the use of evaluation

15. Evaluation to support new initiatives New significant initiatives should be based on an evaluation of the policy framework in place Evaluation should be covered extensively in the roadmaps Flag all relevant evaluative material in support of your initiative Evaluation aspects are an important factor in SG-DG bilateral meetings Evaluation forms the basis for the Impact Assessment (IA) IAs have a section on future evaluation arrangements

16. Evaluation in figures 2010 Number of ex-post evaluations finalised? 113 80 % Percentage of outsourced evaluations? 200 000 euro Average cost of an external evaluation ? 19 million euro Total cost for all external evaluations? Average duration for a retrospective evaluation? 14 months Total number of evaluations completed so far: over 1300!

17. Fitness checks pilots • Employment and social affairs: Information and consultation of workers • Enterprise: Agro-food industry • Environment: Protection of EU freshwater resources • Transport: Internal market for aviation Delivery: 2012

18. Groundwater directive Urban Waste Water directive Nitrates directive Floods directive Water scarcity and drought communication Water Framework directive Environmental Quality Standards directive Systematic assessments of regulatory measures Complementary approach ‘Fitness checks’ of entire policy sectors

19. What makes it work • A demand exists • Moving from programmes to policies • A good evidence base from the Member States

20. Not just Commission internally • Promoting assessment • Environmental Impact Assessment Directive • Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive • Aarhus Directive • Within policies, for example: • Socio-economic analysis in REACH • River Basin Management Plans • Environmental Liability Directive – assess damage

21. Evaluation on Europa:http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat_general/evaluation/index_en.htm Better regulation:http://ec.europa.eu/governance/better_regulation/index_en.htm Impact Assessment on Europa: http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/index_en.htm Smart Regulation Communication: http://ec.europa.eu/governance/better_regulation/documents/com_2010_0543_en.pdf Key links