Businesses back court’s critique of impact assessment process
Court of Auditors said Commission needed to make better use of assessments.
The European business lobby has welcomed criticism from the European Court of Auditors of how lawmakers assess the possible impact of proposed legislation.
The EU’s external auditors looked at the use of impact assessments between 2002 and 2008, introduced as part of the European Commission’s drive for “better regulation”.
One of the recommendations of the report, which was released on Tuesday (28 September), is that the process of making impact assessments should continue beyond the initial stage when the Commission presents its draft proposal.
Henri Grethen, the Luxembourgeois member of the court, who oversaw the writing of the report, said the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament should carry out their own impact assessments to evaluate the effect of amendments that they were making to draft legislation. “It is not enough that it functions well at the level of the Commission. The impact assessment process has to go on,” Grethen said.
The auditors found that the impact assessment was not updated when the draft text of the proposed services directive was substantially revised by the Parliament and the Council, even though the changes were likely to have a major effect on the economic impact.
The auditors criticised the Council and MEPs for failing to discuss the Commission’s impact assessments, despite a commitment to do so. The auditors found that the Commission had only been invited to present its impact assessment to a Parliament committee in one case, on legislation affecting the EU’s energy markets.
Value of assessment
Erik Berggren, a senior adviser on better regulation at BusinessEurope, the European business and employer’s federation, praised the report. He said that it highlighted many issues BusinessEurope itself had raised.
Berggren said the report was correct to point out that the Commission had set up a comprehensive system, whereas many national governments did not have similar systems. He said that they could learn from the Commission’s practice.
The report found that impact assessments had made a positive contribution to the EU’s decision-making process and were appreciated by other EU institutions as a way of improving the quality of legislation. On one major piece of legislation, the regulation to cap mobile-phone roaming charges, a key part of the legislation, was changed because of issues raised by the impact assessment, according to the report.
Berggren said he agreed with another of the auditors’ recommendations that stakeholders should be consulted about draft impact assessments. This would, the auditors argue, help to improve the quality of input into assessments. The Commission is unwilling to consult on draft impact assessments. It argues that measures to ensure the consultation of stakeholders have been strengthened.