WRITTEN QUESTION E-1404/01 by Philip Bradbourn (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Business impact assessment.
Date: 2001-05-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU law, governance, impact study, type of business

18.4.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 93 E/9

Directorate B covering external relations, with multilateral and bilateral arrangements being handled by
separate units.

There is no North/South divide and certainly no difference of treatment between various Member States.
The new establishment plan for DG Fisheries foresees that all agreements based on a financial payment for
the access to fishing grounds (such as Greenland, Mauritania, Angola and others) are dealt with in one unit
in Directorate B. This in fact guarantees that they are managed in a coherent way.

Iceland and others) are dealt with by the unit

Those agreements with third countries, where the exchange of fishing rights are the basic element (such as
in Directorate A that also deals with the
Norway,
management of stocks. This is useful as the fishing rights under these agreements are part of the TAC’s and
Quotas that have to be divided between Member States. Especially in the case of Norway the advantage of
this new system can be seen, as the Commission is currently negotiating with Norway the long term
technical measures for the recovery of the Cod stocks in the North Sea.

Dialogue with organisations in the fisheries sector takes place on a continuous basis through the work of
the Consultative Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture. However, the internal organisation of its
services is a matter on which the Commission acts independently having regard to considerations of
efficient use of resources and smooth implementation of policy.

(2002/C 93 E/009)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1404/01

by Philip Bradbourn (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 May 2001)

Subject: Business impact assessment

Can the Commission identify which pieces of legislation have been subject to a business impact assessment
since it came into existence in 1986 and can they supply a summary of what effect such assessments have
had in relation to legislation?

How does the Commission see business impact assessments in relation to the proposals on European
Governance?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(22 October 2001)

The Commission is sorry to have to tell the Honorable Member that there is no centralised information on
this subject in the Commission, and that the research that would have to be done in order to provide a
detailed response to his question would be out of all proportion to the result desired, and would exceed
the requirements of a response to a written question.

As to the second part of the question, the Commission considers that the business impact assessment (BIA)
has since 1986 proven to be useful in assessing the impact of legislation on enterprises, and in particular
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, in light of the recognised shortcomings and the
broader debate on governance and especially on regulatory simplification, the Commission launched a
pilot project for reviewing the existing BIA system in September 2000. It will run until February 2002,
with preliminary conclusions to be drawn in the autumn of 2001. The objective of the pilot project is
both to improve the existing system (with a particular focus on external consultation and economic
analysis) and to feed experiences into the broader debate initiated by the White Paper on European
Governance adopted by the Commission on 25 July 2001 (1).

(1) COM(2001) 428 final.