The new EC impact assessment: what for?

EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION

Sophie Dupressoir

OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION

Political context

Key features of impact assessment

Limits of IA

POLITICAL CONTEXT

Better Regulation Action Plan AND the European Strategy for Sustainable Development

An effective and efficient Regulatory Environment

More coherent preparation of EU decision-making (economic, social, environmental impacts)

Key policy documents

2002 - EC Communication on Impact assessment – COM(2002) 276 final + Technical guidelines

2004 - EC Communication on Impact Assessment: Next Steps - In support of competitiveness and sustainable development SEC(2004)1377

Impact assessment: Key features (1)

Covers all major initiatives

Move away from partial assessment to a cross-sectoral approach (indirect effects, trade-offs)

Integrate and replace all the previous EC assessment systems

Active involvement of all relevant stakeholders, at earlier stages of the assessment process

Key features (2): A DYNAMIC PROCESS

Definition of the problem→ identification of options

↔ analysis of impacts → political decision

Alternative options should be considered, including « No policy change »

Iterative process, in order to achieve best effectiveness of proposal

Evaluation of trade-offs (mitigating measures)

Key features (2) : ANALYSING THE IMPACT

Positive and negative effects

Balancing the short-trem and long-term effects

Identify the distributive effects (“losers” and “winners”) and the effects on existing inequalities

Internal / external (non-EU) impacts

Qualitative, quantitative or monetary terms

LIMITS OF IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Sustainable development is not taken as the reference (lack of

knowledge on interlinkages )

Long term, positive effects are underestimated (e.g. innovation,

health)

Limits of economic calculation (in case of uncertainty, serious risk,

cultural differences, discounting rate)

Macro-level assessments vs. distributive impacts

Lack of real strategy for consultation

Differences of capacities between stakeholders

CONCLUSION

IA is a tool to inform decision making - Does not give “the” solution

IA is a good tool to learn about potential implications of a regulatory initiative

Stakeholders’ participation should move from “external quality control” to structured dialogue and “learning by doing” process.