COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Smart Regulation in the European Union
Date: 2010-10-08
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: climate change, economic and social cohesion, economic growth, economic recession, job creation, management of resources, research and development, sustainable development

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 8.10.2010 
COM(2010) 543 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

Smart Regulation in the European Union 

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

Smart Regulation in the European Union 

1. 

CLOSING THE CYCLE: FROM BETTER TO SMART REGULATION 

The economic and financial problems of the last two years have contained important lessons 
for  regulatory  policy.  Most  importantly,  they  have  confirmed  that  markets  do  not  exist  in 
isolation. They exist to serve a purpose which is to deliver sustainable prosperity for all, and 
they  will  not  always  do  this  on  their  own.  Regulation  has  a  positive  and  necessary  role  to 
play.  The  crisis  has  highlighted  the  need  to  address  incomplete,  ineffective,  and 
underperforming regulatory measures and, in many cases, to do so urgently.  

Our  approach  to  regulation  must  promote  the  interests  of  citizens,  and  deliver  on  the  full 
range of public policy objectives from ensuring financial stability to tackling climate change. 
EU regulations also contribute to business competitiveness by underpinning the single market, 
eliminating the costly fragmentation of the internal market because of different national rules. 
At  the  same  time,  given  that  we  depend  on  businesses,  in  particular  small  and  medium 
enterprises, to get us back on the path to sustainable growth, we must limit burdens for them 
to what is strictly necessary, and allow them to work and compete effectively.  

In short, getting legislation right is essential if we are to deliver the ambitious objectives for 
smart, sustainable and inclusive growth set out by the Europe 2020 Strategy1. 

The better regulation agenda has already led to a significant change in how the Commission 
makes policy and proposes to regulate. Stakeholder consultations and impact assessments are 
now  essential  parts  of  the  policy  making  process.  They  have  increased  transparency  and 
accountability, and promoted evidence-based policy making. This system is considered to be 
good  practice  within  the  EU  and  is  supporting  decision-making  within  the  EU  institutions2. 
The Commission has simplified much existing legislation and has made significant progress 
in reducing administrative burdens.  

the  Commission  has 

The Commission believes that it is now time to step up a gear. Better regulation must become 
smart regulation and be further embedded in the Commission's working culture. The President 
this 
of 
Communication  outlines  what  it  will  mean  in  practice.  It  draws  on  a  number  of  inputs 
including a recent resolution from the European Parliament on Better Law-making3 a public 
consultation4;  the  European  Court  of  Auditors'  report  on  Impact  Assessment  in  the  EU 
institutions5;  and  the  reports  of  the  Impact  Assessment  Board  (IAB)6.  On  this  basis,  the 
Commission has identified a number of key messages. 

taken  direct  responsibility  for  smart  regulation  and 

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COM(2010) 2020 "Europe 2020 - A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth". 
European Court of Auditors Special report N° 3/2010 "Impact Assessments in the EU institutions: do 
they support decision making?". 
European Parliament Resolution of 9 September 2010 on better lawmaking (P7_TA(2010)0311). 
http://ec.europa.eu/governance/better_regulation/smart_regulation/consultation_en.htm  
See footnote 2. 

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First,  smart  regulation  is  about  the  whole  policy  cycle  -  from  the  design  of  a  piece  of 
legislation,  to  implementation,  enforcement,  evaluation  and  revision.  We  must  build  on  the 
strengths  of  the  impact  assessment  system  for  new  legislation.  But  we  must  match  this 
investment with similar efforts to manage and implement the body of existing legislation to 
ensure that it delivers the intended benefits. This requires a greater awareness by all actors of 
the  fact  that  implementing  existing  legislation  properly  and  amending  it  in  the  light  of 
experience is as important as the new legislation we put on the table. 

Second, smart regulation must remain a shared responsibility of the European institutions and 
of  Member  States.  These  actors  have  made  varied  progress,  and  the  Commission  will 
continue to work with them to ensure that the agenda is actively pursued by all. This must be 
accompanied by a greater recognition that smart regulation is not an end in itself. It must be 
an integral part of our collective efforts in all policy areas.  

Third,  the  views  of  those  most  affected  by  regulation  have  a  key  role  to  play  in  smart 
regulation.  The  Commission  has  made  great  strides  in  opening  its  policy  making  to 
stakeholders.  This  can  also  be  taken  a  step  further  and  the  Commission  will  lengthen  the 
period for its consultations, and carry out a review of its consultation processes to see how to 
strengthen the voice of citizens and stakeholders further. This will help to put into practice the 
provisions of the Lisbon Treaty on participatory democracy7. 

The following sections present the measures planned to address these issues. 

2. 

MANAGING THE QUALITY OF REGULATION THROUGHOUT THE POLICY CYCLE  

The aim of smart regulation is to design and deliver regulation that respects the principles of 
subsidiarity  and  proportionality  and  is  of  the  highest  quality  possible8.  This  must  be  done 
throughout the policy cycle from when a piece of legislation is designed to when it is revised. 
The  Commission's  investment  in  impact  assessments  is  paying  off  in  terms  of  improved 
quality  of  new  legislation.  Since  it  is  the  existing  body  of  legislation,  however,  that  creates 
most benefits and costs, we must make an equivalent effort to manage it more systematically. 
Smart regulation policy will therefore attach greater importance than before to evaluating the 
functioning and effectiveness of existing legislation.  

2.1. 

Improving the stock of EU legislation  

Simplifying EU legislation and reducing administrative burdens 

The previous Commission put in place two exercises to improve existing legislation. First, the 
Simplification  Programme  has  brought  substantial  benefits  to  citizens  and  businesses9.  155 
proposals  have  been  adopted,  and  the  2010  update  of  the  programme  includes  46  new 
initiatives. Second, the Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens10 is on track 
to exceed its target of cutting red tape by 25% by 2012. The Commission has tabled proposals 
which, if adopted, would generate annual savings of EUR 38 billion for European companies 
out  of  a  total  estimated  burden  of  EUR  124  billion  –  a  reduction  of  31%.  The  European 
Parliament and Council recently approved a proposal concerning value-added tax which will 

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SEC(2009) 1728 "Impact Assessment Board Report for 2009". 
Article 11 of the Treaty on European Union. 
The Commission has produced a separate report on subsidiarity: "17th Report on Better Lawmaking". 
COM(2009) 17 "Third progress report on the strategy for simplifying the regulatory environment". 
COM(2007) 23 "Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens in the European Union". 

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bring  about  EUR  18.4  billion  of  these  savings  and  are  discussing  another  proposal  to  allow 
over 5 million micro-enterprises to be exempted from EU accounting rules11.  

These successful efforts must continue at EU and national level to complete the programme 
by  2012.  The  Commission  is  convinced,  however,  that  in  addition  to  delivering  this 
programme, efforts must continue to reduce administrative burdens where possible. This can 
best be done as part of a broader approach which takes account of all factors which determine 
the efficiency and effectiveness of legislation.  

The Commission is therefore merging its efforts to reduce administrative burdens with those 
to simplify legislation. This will help to address stakeholders' concerns that businesses do not 
always feel the benefit of administrative burden reductions, including because of obligations 
which produce 'irritation' even  if they impose little cost. It has extended the mandate of the 
High  Level  Group  of  Independent  Stakeholders  until  the  end  of  2012  to  provide  advice  on 
these  issues,  by  when  simplification  and  administrative  burden  reduction  will  have  been 
mainstreamed into the Commission's approach to managing the stock of existing legislation. 
As in the past, the Commission will ensure that measures to simplify or reduce administrative 
burdens do not affect the policy objectives of legislation.  

Evaluating benefits and costs of existing legislation 

A key tool in this new approach will be ex post evaluation of legislation12. The Commission 
has a long tradition of evaluating expenditure programmes. It has begun evaluating legislation 
in certain policy areas including public procurement, professional qualifications and working 
conditions.  This  approach  must  be  extended  so  that  evaluations  of  legislation  become  an 
integral part of smart regulation. Evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of EU legislation 
will improve the quality of policy-making and help to identify new opportunities to simplify 
legislation  and  reduce  administrative  burdens.  The  public  consultation  has  shown  strong 
support for this type of evaluation. It has also shown that few Member States do it. Given that 
national  administrations  usually  have  a  better  understanding  of  how  legislation  works  in 
practice,  however,  the  Commission  will  have  to  work  closely  with  them  in  developing  this 
approach.  

Evaluation of individual initiatives cannot always show the full picture. A more strategic view 
is  often  required.  Comprehensive  evaluations  of  the  common  agricultural,  fisheries  and 
structural policies have shown the need for such an approach13. The Commission will build on 
this  experience  and  complement  evaluation  of  individual  pieces  of  legislation  with  more 
comprehensive  policy  evaluations.  These  “fitness  checks”  will  assess  if  the  regulatory 
framework for a policy area is fit for purpose and, if not, what should be changed. The aim 
will be to identify excessive burdens, inconsistencies and obsolete or ineffective measures and 
to help to identify the cumulative impact of legislation.  

Both  evaluation  and  "fitness  checks"  must  be  closely  linked  to  existing  work  on 
implementation, enforcement and infringements explained in Section 2.3 below. Pooling the 

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COM(2009) 544 "Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens in the EU: Sectoral 
Reduction Plans and 2009 Actions". 
This term covers all evaluation activities carried out following the approval of a measure.  
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/healthcheck/index_en.htm 
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/eval/index_en.htm 
http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/reform/index_en.htm 
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/evaluation/expost_reaction_en.htm 

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information  from  these  activities  will  help  to  produce  a  clear  picture  of  how  existing 
legislation is working and what may need to be changed.  

In  light  of  the  above,  to  step  up  efforts  to  improve  the  quality  of  existing  legislation  the 
Commission intends to:  

(i) 

(ii) 

(iii) 

(iv) 

(v) 

(vi) 

Ensure  that  all  significant  proposals  for  new  or  revised  legislation  are  in  principle 
based  on  an  evaluation  of  what  is  already  in  place.  It  will  phase  in  this  approach 
during its current mandate, and will review the evaluation guidelines to ensure that 
evaluations  establish  whether  legislation  is  delivering  the  intended  benefits,  and 
assess the costs that it has entailed.  

Provide  transparency  by  presenting  planned  evaluations  of  legislation  on  a  specific 
website to allow Member States and stakeholders to prepare inputs at an early stage.  

Carry  out  the  four  “fitness  checks”  launched  in  2010  for  areas  in  environment, 
transport, employment/social policy and industrial policy and extend the approach to 
other policy areas in 2011 on the basis of these experiences. 

Finalise the administrative burden reduction programme by 2012 and mainstream the 
experience gained from this and from simplification activities into the evaluation and 
policy-making processes.  

Improve the consultation website to allow stakeholders to express more easily their 
concerns about administrative burdens and simplification issues14.  

Invite Member States to use the possibilities in EU legislation to waive obligations 
for businesses such as SMEs. The Commission has asked the High Level Group of 
Independent Stakeholders to present a report by November 2011 on best practices of 
Member  States  in  implementing  EU  legislation  in  the  least  burdensome  way.  In 
parallel, the Commission will analyse further the issue of 'gold plating'15 and report 
on any substantial findings.  

(vii) 

Adjust  when  appropriate  the  membership  of  the  High  Level  Group  of  Independent 
Stakeholders  to  reflect  its  broader  work  on  simplification  as  well  as  administrative 
burden  reduction  by  ensuring  representation  of  both  SMEs  and  the  non-business 
sector. 

In parallel, the Commission will continue to encourage the European Parliament and Council 
to approve swiftly the simplification and burden reduction proposals that it has already tabled, 
and the new proposals it will make over the next year. It calls on Member States to implement 
them rapidly. 

2.2.  Ensuring that new legislation is the best possible 

The  Commission  has  put  in  place  an  impact  assessment  system  to  prepare  evidence  for 
political  decision-making  and  to  provide  transparency  on  the  benefits  and  costs  of  policy 

14 

15 

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/better-regulation/administrative-burdens/online-
consultation/index_en.htm  
Gold-plating refers to the practice of national bodies going beyond what is required in EU legislation 
when transposing or implementing it at Member State level. 

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choices16.  A  key  element  of  this  system  is  the  Impact  Assessment  Board  which  provides 
independent quality control of the Commission's impact assessments. Since it was created in 
2006 it has produced over 400 opinions which are available to the public17.  

The European Court of Auditors has confirmed that this impact assessment system compares 
favourably to other systems in the EU, and indeed can be considered to be good practice on a 
number of issues. It has found that the IAB is providing valuable quality control, that impact 
assessments have become an integral part of policy development within the Commission, and 
that  they  help  the  European  Parliament  and  Council  when  considering  the  Commission's 
proposals.  It  also  validated  the  Commission's  integrated  approach  which  is  based  on  an 
analysis  of  benefits  and  costs  and  takes  into  account  all  relevant  economic,  social  and 
environmental impacts. This approach is ambitious and contrasts with the narrower focus on 
costs or administrative burdens in a number of Member States. The Commission considers it 
essential  to  ensure  that  the  measures  it  proposes  are  necessary,  cost-effective  and  of  high 
quality.  

Against this background, the Commission will consolidate the current system and the priority 
will  be  to  ensure  that  it  delivers  its  full  potential.  On  the  basis  of  improvements  which  the 
Court  has  identified,  many  of  which  are  in  line  with  suggestions  made  by  the  IAB  or 
stakeholders  in  the  public  consultation,  the  Commission  has  identified  the  following  key 
issues.  

(i) 

(ii) 

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20 

While  the  Court  of  Auditors  has  confirmed  that  the  IAB  is  effective,  the  President 
has reinforced its role further so that in principle a positive opinion from the IAB is 
needed  before  a  proposal  can  be  put  forward  for  Commission  decision18.  The 
independence of the IAB is demonstrated by the frank views in its opinions19 and by 
the  fact  that  it  does  not  hesitate  to  ask  Commission  services  to  redo  their  analysis 
when it considers this necessary. The Commission therefore does not consider that an 
external body to control its impact assessments, as suggested by some stakeholders, 
is  necessary.  It  is  also  of  the  view  that  an  external  body  would  not  be  compatible 
with the Commission's right of initiative or with the institutional roles of Parliament 
and  Council  which  are  the  bodies  responsible  for  reviewing,  amending  and 
ultimately adopting the Commission's proposals. Impact assessments are part of the 
Commission's  internal  decision-making  process,  and  it  would  also  be  inappropriate 
to give a particular group of external experts or stakeholders privileged access to this. 

It  is  essential  that  the  planning  of  impact  assessment  work  is  transparent  so  that 
stakeholders  can  engage  in  the  process  as  early  as  possible.  As  of  2010,  the 
Commission publishes roadmaps for all proposals that are likely to have significant 
impacts,  including  delegated  and  implementing  acts,  explaining  whether  an  impact 
assessment  is  planned  or  not  and  why20.  Commission  services  consult  and  inform 
stakeholders in a variety of ways at different stages of the impact assessment work to 
ensure  that  the  analysis  is  complete,  consistent  and  accurate.  Section  4  identifies 

http://ec.europa.eu/governance/better_regulation/impact_en.htm  
Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/ia_carried_out/cia_2010_en.htm 
C(2010) 1100 "The Working Methods of the Commission 2010-2014". 
See footnote 17.  
Roadmaps  also  outline  for  planned  Commission  initiatives  the  problems  to  be  addressed,  subsidiarity 
issues, potential solutions and likely impacts. 
http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/planned_ia/roadmaps_2010_en.htm  

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(iii) 

(iv) 

(v) 

further  improvements  to  the  consultation  process.  Against  this  background,  the 
Commission  does  not  consider  that  it  is  necessary  to  consult  on  draft  impact 
assessments as some stakeholders requested.  

To strengthen the integrated assessment of impacts, the Commission has developed 
specific  guidance  for  assessing  social  impacts21  and  has  created  a  help  desk  on 
administrative burdens.  

To  reflect  the  new  legal  status  of  the  EU  Charter  of  Fundamental  Rights,  the 
Commission will reinforce the assessment of impacts on fundamental rights, and will 
develop specific guidance for this. 

Impact  assessments  should  quantify  benefits  and  costs  when  possible.  The 
Commission will continue efforts to improve in this area with the caveat that there is 
a limit to what can be quantified at the level of 27 Member States: data is frequently 
limited,  and  the  impact  of  EU  legislation  often  depends  on  how  national 
administrations  implement  it.  This  also  means  that  aggregating  figures  for  benefits 
and  costs  of  EU  legislation  over  time,  as  some  stakeholders  have  requested,  would 
not be meaningful. Improved consultations (see Section 4) should, however, help to 
provide  better  data,  and  the  Commission  will  seek  practical  ways  to  improve  data 
availability,  for  instance  through  the  Committee  of  Regions  and  its  network  for 
consulting local and regional authorities.  

2.3. 

Improving the implementation of EU legislation  

EU  legislation  must  be  implemented  properly  if  it  is  to  achieve  its  goals.  While  Member 
States are primarily responsible for this, the Commission works closely with them. It has put 
in  place  a  number  of  measures  to  help22.  These  include  'preventive  action'  -  paying  greater 
attention  to  implementation  and  enforcement  in  impact  assessments  when  designing  new 
legislation23;  support  to  Member  States  during  implementation  to  anticipate  problems  and 
avoid infringement proceedings later on; transposition workshops for new directives such as 
for regulated professions, insurance, banking, accounting and auditing; and guidelines to help 
Member  States  implement  new  legislation  such  as  for  REACH.  It  is  also  improving 
enforcement  by  prioritising  and  accelerating  infringement  proceedings.  The  Commission 
produces Annual Reports on the application of EU law which deal with these issues24. 

To improve further the transposition, implementation and enforcement of EU legislation the 
Commission will:  

(i) 

(ii) 

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23 

24 

Strengthen  the  analysis  of  these  issues  in  ex  post  evaluations  of  legislation  and 
ensure that the results are used in impact assessments for new or revised proposals.  

Further  develop  the  use  of  Implementation  Plans  for  new  EU  legislation,  and 
continue  to  request  Member  States  to  produce  correlation  tables  to  provide 
transparency  on  how  national  law  transposes  the  obligations  in  EU  directives.  The 

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=760&langId=en&preview=cHJldmlld0VtcGxQb3J0YWwh  
COM(2007) 502 "A Europe of Results – Applying Community Law". 
See the Impact Assessment Guidelines, pp. 42 – 43: 
http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/commission_guidelines/commission_guidelines_en.htm  
http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/infringements/infringements_annual_report_en.htm  

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Commission  will  monitor  and  publish  information  on  the  performance  of  Member 
States25. 

(iii) 

Continue to improve the efficiency of the EU Pilot which aims to provide quick and 
full  answers  to  citizens'  and  businesses'  questions  on  EU  law,  and  encourage  more 
Member States to participate in it26. 

(iv) 

Explore how to improve SOLVIT and promote it further to SMEs27.  

2.4.  Making legislation clearer and more accessible  

Managing  the  quality  of  the  legislation  also  means  making  sure  that  it  is  as  clear  and 
accessible  as  possible.  The  Commission  scrutinizes  all  new  legislative  proposals  to  ensure 
that  the  rights  and  obligations  they  create  are  set  out  in  simple  language  to  facilitate 
implementation  and  enforcement.  For  existing  legislation,  the  Commission  will  continue  to 
codify,  recast  and  consolidate  legal  texts.  It  will  also  continue  to  reduce  the  volume  of 
legislation by repealing obsolete provisions. Finally, to improve electronic access to the full 
body  of  EU  legislation,  a  new  EUR-Lex  portal  is  being  developed  with  the  other  EU 
institutions.  The  Commission  encourages  Member  States  to  consolidate  national  legislation 
which  transposes  EU  legislation  and  to  make  it  electronically  available,  including  via  the 
EUR-Lex portal.  

3. 

A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY 

3.1.  The European Parliament, Council and advisory bodies 

The European Parliament and Council have a key role to play in delivering smart regulation. 
Many  stakeholders  have  expressed  concerns  that  they  should  adopt  pending  administrative 
burden  and  simplification  proposals  more  rapidly,  and  call  on  them  to  deliver  on  the 
commitments  they  made  in  the  Inter-Institutional  Agreement  on  Better  Law-making.  While 
both  institutions  agreed  to  do  impact  assessments  on  substantive  amendments  they  make  to 
Commission proposals, they have done so only rarely. The Commission calls on Parliament 
and Council to make further progress on this issue. It will continue to respond constructively 
and on a case by case basis to requests from them to expand on aspects of its original impact 
assessments.  

The  Court  of  Auditors'  report  has  shown  that  users  in  both  institutions  considered  impact 
assessments  to  be  helpful  when  discussing  Commission  proposals  even  if  they  were  rarely 
used formally in meetings. This is an encouraging basis to build on. While it is for Parliament 
and  Council  to  decide  on  their  internal  processes,  it  seems  clear  that  to  deliver  smart 
regulation  consistently,  every  Parliamentary  committee  and  Council  formation  should 
consider impact assessments as part of their discussions. This fuller engagement in the smart 
regulation  process  could  also  encourage  more  rapid  treatment  of  simplification  and 
administrative burden reduction proposals, and codifications and recasts. 

The  European  Parliament  has  taken  a  number  of  steps  in  this  direction:  the  Internal  Market 
and  Consumer  Protection  Committee  has  indicated  that  it  will  systematically  examine 

25 
26 
27 

http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/directives/directives_communication_en.htm 
http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/infringements/application_monitoring_en.htm  
http://ec.europa.eu/solvit/  

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Commission  impact  assessments,  and  the  Committee  on  Women's  Rights  and  Gender 
Equality  has  commissioned  an  impact  assessment  on  amendments  that  it  is  proposing  to  a 
draft  directive  dealing  with  maternity 
these 
developments. 

leave28.  The  Commission  welcomes 

Finally, there is continued interest from the European Economic and Social Committee29 and 
the  Committee  of  the  Regions30  in  smart  regulation.  The  Commission  considers  that  the 
expertise  and  networks  that  these  bodies  can  mobilise  can  be  an  important  source  of 
information for preparing impact assessments. 

3.2.  Member States 

Action  at  EU  level  alone  will  not  be  enough  to  achieve  smart  regulation  objectives.  Smart 
regulation  must  also  be  implemented  at  national  level  because  in  certain  key  fields  such  as 
company law, taxation and social security, most legislation is national in origin and because, 
as mentioned above, Member States are primarily responsible for ensuring that EU legislation 
is properly implemented. Under the Lisbon Treaty, national parliaments check the application 
of  the  subsidiarity  principle  in  Commission  proposals  and  can  in  this  regard  contribute  to 
ensuring a higher quality of EU legislation.  

Some Member States have made significant progress on issues such as administrative burden 
reduction, but few have put in place a system of better regulation as wide-ranging as that of 
the Commission. The Commission is aware that there is 'no one size fits all' approach to smart 
regulation, and encourages Member States to define priorities on the basis of available human 
and institutional capacities. Three points should nevertheless be emphasised. 

First,  the  Court  of  Auditors  has  suggested  that  national  impact  assessments  could  usefully 
complement those done by the Commission, could help discussions in Council on changes to 
Commission  proposals,  and  help  Member  States  with  transposition  and  enforcement  issues. 
They could also help to resolve the data challenges highlighted above. The Commission will 
continue to work with Member States in its High Level Group of Better Regulation Experts to 
explore this issue and to exchange views and best practices on smart regulation in general.  

Second,  the  Treaty  on  the  Functioning  of  the  European  Union  allows  Member  States  under 
certain conditions to present proposals on their initiative in the field of judicial cooperation in 
criminal  matters  and  police  co-operation31.  The  Commission  is  of  the  view  that  these 
proposals should be accompanied by impact assessments.  

Finally, the Commission encourages Member States to involve stakeholders when discussing 
measures to implement or transpose EU legislation. This would both ensure that stakeholders 
concerns  are  taken  into  account  and  increase  their  awareness  of  the  rights  and  obligations 
stemming from EU law. 

28 

29 

30 

31 

COM(2008) 637 - Directive amending Council Directive 92/85/EEC on the introduction of measures to 
encourage improvements in the safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have 
recently given birth or are breastfeeding 
Opinion of the Section for Single Market, Production and Consumption of the EESC, 8 July 2010, INT 
489. 
Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Better Regulation Package 2007/2008, 3-4 December 
2009, CdR 199/2009. 
See Article 76 of the Treaty. 

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4. 

STRENGTHENING THE VOICE OF CITIZENS AND STAKEHOLDERS  

Consulting  citizens  and  other  stakeholders  both  when  developing  policies  and  when 
evaluating  whether  they  have  done  what  they  set  out  to  do  is  an  essential  element  of  smart 
regulation. The Commission consults in a variety of ways on the basis of minimum standards 
which  have  been  in  place  since  200232.  The  responses  to  the  public  consultation  for  this 
Communication  revealed  that  stakeholders  appreciate  the  Commission's  efforts  in  this  area 
but  consider  that  further  improvements  are  needed.  Many  asked  for  a  longer  consultation 
period and for consultations to be more accessible, given that citizens and other stakeholders 
do not have the same capacity to contribute and not all have on-line access.  

The Commission stresses that these concerns must be seen against the background of the full 
range  of  opportunities  that  citizens  and  other  stakeholders  have  to  contribute  to  the  policy 
making process. The 8 week public consultation is often only one part of a longer process in 
which  Commission  services  communicate  with  stakeholders  in  other  ways.  The  increased 
availability of roadmaps (see §2.2) and ex-post evaluation work plans will also allow citizens 
and  other  stakeholders'  to  plan  inputs  to  the  policy  process  and  to  express  their  views  at  a 
much earlier stage than before. Nevertheless, in the light of these concerns, the Commission 
will:  

(i) 

Increase  the  public  consultation  period  to  12  weeks.  This  will  apply  from  2012  so 
that it can be incorporated appropriately into the planning of future initiatives.  

(ii) 

Carry out a review of its consultation policy in 201133. It will explore:  

•  How  to  improve  the  quality  of  consultation  documents  and  the  availability  of 

forward planning of public consultations.  

•  How to make better use of tools such as the "Your Europe" Internet information 
portal,34  the  European  Business  Test  Panel35,  SME  panels36,  the  Register  of 
Interest  Representatives37,  the  interactive  policymaking  tool  (IPM)38  and  other 
Web 2.0 applications39.  

•  How  to  make  best  use  of  consultation  channels  in  the  Member  States  which 
stakeholders  are  familiar  with  to  disseminate  Commission  consultations  and 
encourage replies. 

•  How to better use the consultation process to collect data and evidence for impact 

assessments and evaluations. 

•  How to ensure better compliance with the minimum standards. 

32 

33 
34 
35 
36 
37 
38 
39 

COM(2002) 704  "Towards  a  reinforced  culture of  consultation  and  dialogue - General  principles  and 
minimum standards for consultation of interested parties by the Commission". 
As foreseen in COM(2007) 127 "Follow up to the Green paper 'European Transparency Initiative'". 
http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope 
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ebtp/index_en.htm  
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/listening-to-smes/index_en.htm 
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/transparency/regrin/welcome.do?locale=en  
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/index_en.htm 
http://www.epractice.eu/ 

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5. 

CONCLUSIONS 

This Communication has outlined the measures the Commission plans to ensure the quality of 
regulation  throughout  the  policy  cycle,  from  the  design  of  policy  to  its  evaluation  and 
revision. By stepping up a gear, smart regulation can help to achieve the ambitious objectives 
for  smart,  sustainable  and  inclusive  growth  set  out  by  the  Europe  2020  Strategy.  Smart 
regulation is, however, a shared responsibility and its success will depend on all institutions 
and stakeholders involved in the formulation and implementation of EU policies playing their 
part. The Commission will report on progress in implementing the smart regulation agenda in 
the second half of 2012. 

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