Simplifier le millefeuille des aides aux PME

Avec le 11ème salon "Planète PME",  c'est l'occasion de faire un tour d'horizon des dispositifs destinés à faciliter la croissance des PME. Leur abondance brouille souvent leur compréhension et leur utilisation. [...] Un récent rapport d'Ernst and Young a analysé la complexité des dispositifs, et sondé les bénéficiaires. Plus de 70 % des personnes interrogées y exprimaient une réelle difficulté à les identifier et à accéder aux aides publiques, avec en ligne de mire leur nombre trop important (32 %), la complexité des dispositifs (25 %) et la multiplicité des sources d'information (21 %). La CGPME avait déjà signalé cette faiblesse en 2012 dans son étude sur l'évolution des PME depuis dix ans. 74 % des dirigeants se déclaraient favorables à la création d'un guichet unique pour clarifier l'accès aux aides. Ce jugement négatif se conjugue avec une appréciation très critique de la majorité des structures publiques de soutien aux entreprises, perçues comme mal coordonnées et parfois concurrentes.Voir aussi commentaire sur Pro.Orange, un portail d'informations professionnelles.

Smart regulation in support of competitiveness and SME's

The incoming rotating presidency of the EU Council (Lithuania, from July) hosted on 5-7 June the semi-annual meeting of the directors and experts of better regulation (DEBR). This is a regular opportunity for experts from member states to informally exchange on recent developments and good practice, and discuss the EU smart regulation agenda and way forward. The organisers have just released the follow-up to this important meeting, by uploading the agenda and a good number of presentations on the website of the LT ministry of economy.

According to the organisers (unfortunately your blogger could not attend), delegates:

• heard how the methodologies for competitiveness proofing, full compliance costs and cumulative assessments are progressing;
• discussed the vital importance of communication to and with stakeholders, particularly business; and
• talked for the first time in this group about inspection, advice and enforcement – such a vital part of the regulatory life cycle.

There is a signficant amount of new material in the presentations, which will be very useful to experts, whether they were or not at the meeting. Most noteworthy, an update on the CAR methodology already presented at the Dublin meeting in December, a study of RIA in Germany, and of course the new subject in that forum: inspections (see also news from OECD, below).

The website also presents "Better Regulation in Lithuania" showing how it developped, on the basis of the administrative burden programme, into a major component of the business environmnent policy.

See also our "history of DEBR (2006-2010."

OECD consultation on inspections (deadline 31 August)

The OECD is launching a public consultation on draft Best Practice Principles for Improving Regulatory Enforcement and Inspections. The goal of this consultation document is to present a basis for discussion on key issues as well as some key principles on which effective and efficient regulatory enforcement and inspections should be based in pursuit of the best compliance outcomes and highest regulatory quality. The principles address the design of the policies, institutions and tools to promote effective compliance – and the process of reforming inspection services to achieve results. Each of the principles represent a recommendation on one of the main issues for successful reforms and is accompanied by an explanatory text. For more, visit OECD page. Deadline for contribution: 31 August 2013 (tip from Florentin Blanc).

Call for contributions for book on legislative drafting

(Announcement from International Association of Legislative Drafting and Law Reform Lawyers I.A.L.D.L.A.R.L.) "Cambridge Scholars Publishers U.K. have agreed to publish a new title: "International Guidelines on Legislative Drafting and Law Reform". The major purpose of this publication is to demonstrate the different approaches and methods of legislative drafting and law reform projects in different jurisdictions of the civil law, common law, EU law and Islamic law jurisdictions within developing and developed countries. We welcome contributions and articles on the subject by the speakers/presenters at our recently concluded conference as well as other authors. Experts interested in contributing can contact the Editor of the series (tonyeclintonjaja@yahoo.com)."
References to the first book in the series of publications of this International Association (July 2012) and the September 2012 conference can be found on this blog (20 July 2012 post : good legal drafting for smart regulation).

NY Senate passes regulatory reform

The New York State Senate passed 14 regulatory reform bills today as the first part of a major initiative, that includes statewide public forums, to identify and eliminate thousands of costly and unnecessary government regulations that inhibit job creation and drive up local property taxes.

The regulatory reform initiative contains inter alia the creation of a task force to review state rules, regulations, and public authorities and make recommendations for the repeal of ones that are determined to be unnecessary. The Task Force recommendations would be binding unless they are rejected by the Legislature.

The package is designed to create a more competitive environment for businesses so they can create new jobs and grow for the future. Along with the need to deliver relief from high taxes, burdensome and unnecessary regulations continue to be a major obstacle when it comes to revitalizing New York’s economy.

In addition, the Senate Majority Coalition approved 13 bills today, including legislation that would:

• Establish a task force to conduct a complete review of the State Administrative Procedure Act (SAPA) and regulatory review process;
• Eliminate 1,000 burdensome regulations on businesses;
• Give the Senate’s Administrative Regulations and Review Commission more oversight authority in the rulemaking process to ensure state agencies do not overstep their authority in implementing rules and regulations;
• Stop unfunded state mandates on local governments and school districts; and
• Require state agencies to provide more information on the costs and benefits of new rules.

Good practice: explaining the UK Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act

The UK government has published a set of documents on the newly adopted Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (see previous post for its content). They supplement, for a wider public, the "official" dossier made available by the National Achives on legislation.gov.uk which contains the text of the Act, the "explanatory notes" and the RIA. This public information pack contains a 9-page "guide" with an overview of the content of the reform and a "policy paper" giving the rationale of the reform and what each measure aims to achieve. The objectives of the reform are defined as"cut(ting) the costs of doing business in Britain, boosting consumer and business confidence and helping the private sector to create jobs." The dossier also contains four "indicative timetables" of implementation.
This is a good example of how to communicate on legislation using the right tools and formats for each phase of the process and each type of public, for hopefully smarter regulation. A similar approach is provided by the EU "summaries of legislation".

L'évaluation des politiques publiques évolue

Les 6 et 7 juin 2013 se tenaient à Grenoble les 11èmes Journées Françaises de l'Evaluation sur le thème des politiques publiques. Commentaire de la Gazette des communes. "Alors, usine à gaz ou aide à la décision ? D'abord, une mise au point : « L'évaluation d'une politique publique : c'est vérifier le lien entre la cause et l'effet, c'est apprécier l'utilité d'une action publique pour les concitoyens», rappelle François Mouterde, président de la Société Française de l'évaluation (SFE). A ne pas confondre avec l'audit qui se focalise sur l'efficacité organisationnelle et financière d'une structure, à ne pas confondre non plus avec la mise en place d'indicateurs et le suivi de ces indicateurs. Il y aurait une centaine d'évaluations de politiques publiques qui sont menées chaque année. Le président de la SFE assure : « Il n'y a plus un seul secteur qui échappe à l'évaluation : le logement, la culture, le social.». L'Etat, ses ministères, l'Ademe, l'Inpes, en font régulièrement. Les grosses collectivités tels que conseils régionaux, généraux, grandes agglomérations y ont pris goût d'abord par obligation, via les politiques contractuelles menées avec l'Europe ou l'Etat (Cucs), qui imposaient des évaluations. Aujourd'hui, les collectivités s'y engagent seules, poussées par deux motivations : « la pression financière qui les pousse à reconsidérer leurs politiques, à viser extrêmement juste ». L'intuition que «le monde change si vite. Il faut vérifier que les politiques sont toujours adaptées». "

RIA developments on both sides of the Atlantic

What happens when two leading research institutes (UCL CLES and ENA CERA, respectively in London and Paris), join forces to research good policy making? Excellent and very useful work, judging by the quality of the output of the Gutenberg project, headed by Drs I. Lianos and F. Larat. As announced on this blog, some 50 academics and practitioners from Europe and America gathered in Paris for "Theory and practice of RIA in Europe" on 10 June. The first session was largely devoted to a detailed presentation and discussion of the findings of the Gutenberg project, which aims to portray and analyse the development of the use of impact assessments (RIAs) throughout the European Union as a standard of good governance and, in some cases, as a legal obligation on regulators. Their research involved a large scale scrutiny of published RIAs in 18 countries (+ the EU) since 2005, supported by sound conceptual planning: the "evidence/politics nexus",six hypothetical models of RIAs, eight key features for rating RIAs, 125 indicators clustered in 5 lead indicators, etc. It has delivered a number of comparison tables which may rank with the Doing Business index for scientific backing and clear methodological basis. Their work will become a must-read for RIA practitioners.
Of the marathon of about 30 presentations which followed, highlights included, in order of appearance (with apologies to all those not mentioned):
- Andrea Renda (CEPS) examined, on the basis of a painstaking scrutiny of all EC RIAs, whether impact assessment has improved EU policymaking (answer: "mixed evidence, but tendency is promising") and gave an expert view on where smart regulation was heading;
- Jonathan Wiener (Duke) was riveting with a history of RIA forerunners since the XVIIIth century, then focused on recent challenges to making RIA a tool to improve policy making: the multiple, interconnected risks that the regulator faces requires broadening the scope of RIAs and CBA. The variety of risks also make it difficult to draw international comparisons (see his books Risk vs Risk, 1995, and The Reality of Precaution, 2011.)
- James Broughel (George Mason U.) presented the Regulatory Report Card, which actually rates "economically significally US RIAs since 2008 by reference to 12 criteria drawn from EO 12866. Results will interest Americans, while the methodology (especially the criteria) should be helpful to all European experts in search of quality RIAs;
- Michael Livermore (NYU) fascinated the audience with his account of how CBA developped in the US, with the shifting appeal to political sides, according to the use lobbies and interest groups could expect to make of the figures, and other political considerations (see also comment on Mike's work on "a new perspective on CBA" in policymaking;
- Alberto Alemanno (HEC Paris) presented some original research, new for most of the audience, into "courts as actors of RIA", with deep insights into the impact of RIAs on policymakers concern for quality and accuracy, in view of possible later repeal of legislation for insufficient evidence base, or ineffective consultation. For more on the topic, see Alberto's blog;
- Liza Bellulo, from the French Competition Authority, presented a useful guide for competition impact assessment of new legislation; English version available from the Authority;
- Elke Ballon, head of the new RIA unit of the European Parliament was sure to interest the audience with her report on the first year of the EP's RIA activities, in connection with EC work, which include screening of EC RIAs, drafting an "initial appraisal" of the Commission report - see April 2013 example - or a detailed assessment on request from an EP committee, producing an IA on substantive amendments to EC proposals. The unit's website will soon be online;

- Joachim Beck (Euro-Institute) introduced a topic which was new to most attendees: "cross-border RIA cooperation" in which he showed that EU lawmakers pursuing economic integration had not sufficiently addressed the issues of cross border regions which represent 40% of the EU territory and 30% of its population;
- Finally, more classicly, the conference was given updates on current RIA and smart regulation developments in the European Commission, the UK and France (with a notable presentation, on a personal basis by an administrator of the French national assembly.)

EC Smart Regulation to produce results by end 2013

On 29-30 May, the Competitiveness Council adopted draft conclusions on smart regulation, as a follow-up to the communication on “EU regulatory fitness” and the communication “Smart regulation: responding to the needs of SMEs”. The conclusions urge the implementation, by all actors involved, of measures contained in the communications leading to tangible reductions in the overall burden of regulation for businesses, especially small ones, as well as simplification for end-users.
They contain inter alia a new, balanced definition of Smart Regulation which "is about achieving benefits at minimum cost, and means ensuring that: the potential costs and benefits of non-regulation and non-action are considered; alternatives to regulation are considered; regulation is evidence-based, in particular by means of robust Impact Assessment, and fit for purpose; the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality are respected; administrative procedures are efficient; unnecessary costs are removed without undermining the policy goals of regulation; overlaps, inconsistencies and gaps are identified and removed; and both effectiveness and efficiency are reviewed on a regular basis.
This edition of the Conclusions is useful in that the Irish presidency has obtained a clear schedule of works till the end of this year: the text calls on the EC to publish "before the summer 2013 the results of its mapping exercise; and in the autumn all planned REFIT initiatives starting from the 2014 work programme, prioritising those arising from the ‘Top Ten’ consultation; and by end 2013 the results of the pilot fitness checks launched before 2012."
The six pages contain many other valuable developments.

US Administration reviews impact of federal regulations

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has released its draft 2013 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations with a call for comments by the public by 31 July. "It also discusses regulatory impacts on State, local, and tribal governments, small business, wages, and economic growth. Chapter II offers recommendations for regulatory reform."