New Regulatory Scrutiny Board (EC)

The Regulatory Scrutiny Board provides a central quality control and support function for Commission impact assessment and evaluation work. It was set up on 1 July 2015 and replaced the Impact Assessment Board.

The Board examines and issues opinions on all the Commission's draft impact assessments and of major evaluations and "fitness checks" of existing legislation. In principle, a positive opinion is needed from the Board for an initiative accompanied by an impact assessment to be tabled for adoption by the Commission. The opinion accompanies the draft initiative together with the impact assessment throughout the Commission's political decision-making. All impact assessments and all related RSB opinions are published once the Commission has adopted the relevant proposal. Evaluation/"fitness check" reports and the related opinions are also published.

The Board is independent of the policy making departments. It is chaired at Director General level. In addition to the Chair, the Board consists of three high-level Commission officials and three members who are recruited from outside the Commission, selected on the basis of their expertise. All members work for the Board full time, with no other policy responsibilities. Until all members of the Board have been appointed, the members of the previous Impact Assessment Board will act as interim members of the Board.

More information on the structure and functioning of the Board can be found in the Better Regulation package documents 'Decision on the Establishment of an Independent Regulatory Scrutiny Board'

RIA in Ireland, ten years on

Tom Ferris, a Consultant Economist, recaps current practice and implementation of RIA over the pas ten years on his blog (also on tinyurl.com/pai-ria ) . He suggests that there is room for improvement, as we enter a second decade "In 2010, the OECD published a report on Better Regulation in Ireland. One of its conclusions was that the RIA process in Ireland continued to operate within a weak institutional framework which does not sufficiently "scare" departments into co-operating for the production of quality RIAs. Against this background, there is a good case to be made for having a central RIA scrutiny facility, which publishes its findings, similar to the EU's Regulatory Scrutiny Board. This would help to ensure that RIAs fulfil quality standards. There is little point in having RIAs produced merely as a box-ticking exercise. Their true value lies in helping Government to make decisions by providing evidence-based RIAs, which measure the positive and negative effects of different options for regulatory change."

New book on How to Work with EU

Message from Erick Akse, a regulatory reform expert close to our network who is co-author of the 2nd edition of this best-seller:

"Dear fellow-networkers, 

I am very proud that I can announce that my second book on EU Decision-Making is now available. You will find it in many bookshops in Brussels with a clear EU-orientation. Of course, it is also available in online bookstores. 

The title of the book is: 'How the EU Institutions Work and... How to Work with the EU Institutions'. 

It is a highly practical guidebook for everyone that works with or is interested in the functioning of the European Union. The book has a proven track record since it is the second edition of a much-valued first publication

The book describes how the EU Institutions function; explains the most often used legislative process, the OLP, for adopting EU legislation; shows how Delegated and Implementing Acts are developed and approved; and combines the institutional and procedural information with practical information on how to work with the EU Institutions and EU Decision-Making"

Job opportunities for regulatory experts

1/Washington (World Bank)

Network friend and top RR expert Peter Ladegaard has points us to an advertised position of Senior Regulatory Governance Specialist, a Washington DC based job anchored in the World Bank's new Governance Global Practice's Regulatory Policy and Management Team. 

"The selected candidate's work program is expected to focus on a combination of knowledge management and client-facing, operational activities. In particular, the candidate will take a leading role in developing and delivering activities under the donor-funded Good Regulatory Practice Program, which will assess and further adapt tools to improve the governance dimension of good regulatory practices. This will involve knowledge development and pilots in areas including Notice-and-Comment, Regulatory Impact Assessment, and to some extent indicators of Good Regulatory Practices."

Full job description and application link on page mentioned above.

2/ Beirut (EU-funded simplification project).

ACE International Consultants is looking for a regulatory reform long term expert based in Beirut to work on the project reported on several occasions on this blog. See November 2014 post for all details about the project. The position is that of key expert on the technical assistance team.

To apply, contact ACE.