Better Regulation still needs to convince Health stakeholders

Health community representatives seem far from convinced by the EC's Better Regulation policy, if those who spoke at the EPHA conference last week are to be believed.

Ms Christina Colclough, from UNI Europa (trade union for private employees) told how "disappointed" her organisation was with BR for not tackling the main challenges to Europe, including that of raising social standards.

Ms Magda Stoczkiewicz, director of Friends of the Earth, regretted that an excessive focus on administrative burdens, instead of the benefits of legislation, which made the EC's agenda look like a Business Europe position.

Ms Florence Berteletti, director of Smokefree Partnership, reminded the audience that industry lobbies were behind the adoption of RIA, a thesis researched by Dr Katherine Smith, in a report launched in the European Parliament in 2010 (see blog post).

On the other hand DG Santé representative and your blogger were given the time to defend a more positive reading of the recent Commission BR package, and Ms Tamsin Rose (Friends of Europe think-tank), pointed out that BR should reduce the irrationality of policy-making. 

Moderator Nina Renshaw, secretary general of EPHA, was able to wrap-up with some forward-looking conclusions:

- BR and RIA were an opportunity that the Health stakeholders should embrace and make heard the voice of their communities in the policy-making process at EU level. 

- the cost of doing nothing option should always be assessed (such as the cost of doing nothing to provide health care to migrants)

- BR should be used to increase the accountability of politicians when pursuing policies not supported by evidence.

See also post on calling the conference (below).

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."

Eurasian RIA guidelines now online

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The Eurasian Economic Community now has a RIA page with resources in English for guidance or comparative purposes.

Up to now, this blog was the only place where this information had been published, thanks to our friend D. Tsygankov (see post dated 10 March 2015 for a summary).

Azerbaijan officials study RIA techniques

 

On 18-19 May, 17 officials from mainly economic ministries and one from Parliament participated in a capacity building workshop for the development of regulatory impact assement (RIA) in Azerbaijan ministries. 

The main purpose of the workshop (which was moderated by your blogger CH Montin) was to take stock of existing RIA in Azerbaijan and to lay the ground for making better use of this aid to government decision making. Over the two day programme, course members were able to pratice the skills required at crucial stages of RIA process, such as defining the problem/issue and the options, assessing the impacts, presenting the integrated analysis of the preferred option. It was made clear that both the evidence base and the consultation process needed to be significantly improved if the full potential of RIA was to be achieved in Azerbaijan. Existing RIA-type scrutinies would need severe upgrading to meet international RIA standards. Special attention was given to the European Commission RIA scheme which in many ways is the most advanced model.

Some practical steps were presented to participants to jump-start a national RIA scheme:

- Issuing a high-level explicit Government statement on the importance of good quality RIA documents to be prepared for the most economically significant new legislations, and emphasizing the importance of effective consultation with stakeholders on draft legislation;

- defining a Azerbaijan RIA methodology after discussion based on international best practice, in particular as reported by OECD publications;

- building capacities in the ministries by freeing officials from other tasks to start practicing RIA on the basis if possible of current or past legislations;

- setting up an oversight body in charge of verifying the quality of RIAs before the corresponding draft legislation is finalised.

 (photo above post: the moderator with some of the course members.)

New EU Better Regulation package

(from yesterday's press release labelled: "Better Regulation Agenda: enhancing transparency and scrutiny for better EU law-making") 

"Today, 19 May, The European Commission adopts its Better Regulation Agenda. This comprehensive package of reforms covering the entire policy cycle will boost openness and transparency in the EU decision-making process, improve the quality of new laws through better impact assessments of draft legislation and amendments, and promote constant and consistent review of existing EU laws, so that EU policies achieve their objectives in the most effective and efficient way."

Compulsory reading for BR experts, but nothing much in the way of novelties. The confirmation of the existing scheme is however welcome, and the new expressing of political commitment encouraging.

Perhaps the best element is the annoucement of a new inter-institutional agreement to improve the use of RIA by cooperation with the other institutions.

There are also updates on the regulatory burdens and REFIT programmes launched under the previous commission, which are worth taking note of.

Finally, there is an announcement that the Commission's Impact Assessment Board, operating since 2006, will be transformed into 'an independent Regulatory Scrutiny Board'. This confirms what was announced by VP Timmermans in December 2014, and corresponds to some MS suggestions (see joint paper). "Its members will have a more independent status and half of them will be recruited from outside the Commission. The board will have an expanded role in checking the quality of impact assessments of new proposals as well as fitness checks and evaluations of existing legislation."

Communicating regulatory reform (Egypt)

After a two  year interruption from June 2012, the  Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity (ERRADA) has been posting news on a regular basis and sharing valuable resources in English. It portrays how a MENA country can put to use the principles of better regulation in support of economic initiative and growth. Of special interest are the news section, reports on the methods used for inventory and review of regulations, with emphasis on those that affect business, and the RIA material, including a workplan for the introduction of RIA and guidelines for practitioners.
There is however still a long way to go for ERRADA, as Egypt only ranks 112th in the Doing Business 2015 ranking.

British regulatory watchdog publishes 5-year report

The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) published on 3 March a comprehensive report on its action since the beginning of this Parliamentary term. Since 2010 the regulatory watchdog has scrutinised over 1,200 regulatory proposals affecting business and civil society organisations, of which 951 became law. This resulted in the RPC issuing just over 2000 opinions on the quality of the evidence base supporting these proposals. It claims that this scrutiny led to the withdrawal or modification of draft legislation saving business £2.2 billion per year in administrative burdens.

In parallel, the RPC has just been strengthened with the appointment of four new members, while retaining its chairman Mr Michael Gibbons.

Eurasian Commission spells out RIA method

Thanks to our friend D. Tsygankov (HSE, Moscow), we are kept informed about the progress of RIA in the Eurasian Economic Commission. We know that RIA became operational on 1 January 2015 in this "supranational regulatory body" formed between four ex-USSR countries, for a number of economic decisions (see post dated 31 December 2014).

Chapter IX  "Regulatory Impact Assessment of the Commission's draft decisions" of the EEC's rules is now available in an unofficial translation which has been sent to the blog for the information of international readers.  

The specific mechanism of the "Eurasian" RIA, including exclusions (RIA targeting), was discussed at the international workshop held last December in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. Chapter IX defines the scope of the scheme, specifies which service is in charge of the research, outlines consultation obligations and most interestingly lists the various economic impacts that need to be measured. We would now need to see some of these RIAs published online for the instruction of RIA pratitioners worldwide.

Impressive new resources for regulatory reformers

Below is a communication from top expert and inventor of the Regulatory Guillotine, Scott Jacobs, Managing Director of Jacobs, Cordova & Associates (Washington, DC). Your blogger is proud of his affiliation as Senior Associate with this reputed consultancy. 

(quote)

Dear Colleagues:

We are pleased to announce that our new website on regulatory reform is now live at www.regulatoryreform.com.

I would like to point you to two new resources for regulatory reformers around the world:

A new international Forum on all aspects of regulatory reform from RIA to retrospective review to economic growth. The Forum is at http://forum.regulatoryreform.com/. You will need to register before you post. You can start new threads or comment on existing threads. The Forum includes topics where you can post events such as conferences, and also announcements for jobs and CVs by those looking for work. 

A RIA Resources page at http://regulatoryreform.com/ria-community/. This page contains hundreds of RIA-related documents from dozens of countries that have adopted RIA. We are actively expanding this page, so please send any new or missing documents to janda@regulatoryreform.com. We will also announce RIA news, so send any new initiatives or reports to us for inclusion. 

We hope you find these resources useful in your work. 

Best wishes, 

Scott

(end quote)

Discussed but not published: French RIAs of draft legislation

If ever there was a law where an published impact assessment would be useful to support informed discussion, the "loi Macron" on "activity and growth" currently the focus of bitter recrimination in France, would certainly qualify.

Context: the French Socialist government, after three years of pro-trade union economic policies, now seems to want to realize a more liberal approach is necessary, to encourage business to invest and create jobs by lifting some of the administrative or legal hurdles. Two specially litigious measures (of the 200 contained in the bill) are the extension of Sunday trading facilities, and the opening up to competition of inter-city road transport (until now limited to preserve the national railway monopoly).

But the impact assessment is nowhere to be found online, though some of its more prominent contents are quoted by newspapers, following an AFP (news agency) despatch. It is a pity that the very complete dossier of parliamentary discussions uploaded by the National Assembly, does not contain the RIA that the Government is constitutionally bound to present with every bill tabled in Parliament. The National Assembly itself invites stakeholders to express their views online, but without giving them the text of the RIA.

RIAs are only published on Legifrance, the portal of French legislation, once the law has been voted.

Though the full text of the impact assessment is not available, most of its significant figures are quoted in the official parliamentary report produced by the National Assembly secretariat.

An AFP story recapitulates the discussion in Parliament from 26 January, stressing that two impact assessments conducted by an ad-hoc body originating from the Planning agency (!) concluded that the liberalization would have overall positive economic consequences.

Experts interested in a recent significant RIA "à la française" will look at the assessment, published on Legifrance, of a law to make life easier for business (law n° 2014-1545 dated 20 December 2014), which displays the usual features and limitations of French RIA. Rather than a study of the issue and various options, it focuses on the solution put forward by the Government, and appears more like a justification of adopted policy than an objective study of various reform proposals.

For a more complete picture of the features of French RIA, readers may refer to the RIA section (pp 14-16) of a study of BR in France by JCA Senior Associate CH Montin (written for and published by an Italian university), which shows that in France, RIA plays a very specific role in the relations between Parliament and Government, rather than a support to decision-making within Government.

See also a presentation given on several occasions, "New RIA in France: impacting policy making?" (all documents accessible also from http://www.smartregulation.net  ) 

Big changes on the better regulation front (Brussels)

The new Commission, and specially its president Jean-Claude Junker, continues to develop the better regulation agenda as a key instrument of European policies and regulation, now making openings in particular on the issue of oversight which has been under discussion since at least 2007.

The European Commission's reformed Impact Assessment Board could one day evolve into an independent watchdog, scrutinising legislation on behalf of the executive, the EU Parliament and Council, says EurActiv quoting recent information.

The new board will advise the Commission, as part of the executive's drive for "better regulation" and to cut red tape.

According to the press release of 18 December, first Vice-President Timmerman said: "All members will be independent, working full time exclusively for the Board and be transparently selected on the basis of their expertise." The board will be able to review existing regulation in a "fitness check", and call upon the Commission to revise or withdraw the rules via a new legislative proposal. Edmund Stoiber was also announced as a special adviser on better regulation to the Commission. However, he will not be part of the new board, but advise the Commission directly.

While the College of Commissioners will still have final say on whether bills are proposed to the Council and Parliament, the Regulatory Scrutiny Board will be influential.

According to EurActiv, the reform is backed by Germany, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and France. Some of those countries are introducing their own equivalents at national level. The UK has campaigned for a fully independent scrutiny board, a call initially knocked back by the Commission. 

There is also news on the REFIT programme: on 17 December, the Commission adopted its Work Programme for 2015. In this context, the Commission confirmed all REFIT actions planned for implementation during 2015. A number of pending legislative proposals from previous Commissions will be withdrawn. Some do not match the new Commission's political priorities. In other cases, the Commission remains committed to the objectives but will propose new, better ways of achieving them. Observers comment on the breath and importance of the "culling" operation.

For the outline of the new policy, see also the "Junker paper": http://ec.europa.eu/priorities/docs/pg_en.pdf

The ten political guidelines were already defined in the Juncker paper presented on the day of his confirmation in Parliament, 15 July 2014. What is new are the "bullet points" specifying what he thinks could be achievable already in 2015.

Under the heading "A new boost for jobs, growth and investment" we find three items:

• Jobs, growth and investment package (before end of 2014) and follow up
• A review of the Europe 2020 strategy
• A strengthened Better Regulation agenda

Eurasian RIA operational from 1 Jan 2015

On December 23, 2014 the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at the level of Heads of States at a meeting in Moscow adopted new Regulations of the Eurasian Economic Commission, including new sections – Chapter VIII "Pre-publication of draft decisions of the Commission, the Intergovernmental Council and the Supreme Council prepared by the Commission" and Chapter IX "Regulatory Impact Assessment of the Commission's draft decisions" coming into force on January 1, 2015. These sections should increase the transparency of the EEC, provide a preliminary assessment of decisions affecting doing business.
The specific mechanism of the "Eurasian" RIA, including exclusions (RIA targeting), was discussed at the international workshop held on December 12, 2014 in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation (from our correspondent in Moscow, D. Tsygankov).

Better RIA to support government policy (Georgia)

Earlier this week, the deputy minister of Economy, Mr M. Janelidze, (second from left on the above photo) opened a workshop for senior officials from several ministries and from Parliament on the development of regulatory impact assement in Georgian ministries. In his introduction, he called on the officials to intensify efforts to give effective application to this tool of better regulation, in the context of preparing the country for EU membership, but also to increase the performance of government by the production of effective and efficient legislation and regulation. The workshop had been organised by the American Chamber of Commerce, the EU-Georgia Business Council and donor organisations.
The main purpose of the workshop (which was moderated by your blogger CH Montin) was to take stock of existing RIA in Georgia and to recommend a plan of action to make better use of this aid to government decision making. Both the evidence base and the consultation process needed to be significantly improved if the full potential of RIA was to be achieved. Some practical steps were agreed between participants at the close of the discussion:
- Issuing a high-level explicit Government statement on the importance of good quality RIA documents to be prepared for the most economically significant new legislations, and emphasizing the importance of effective consultation with stakeholders on draft legislation;
- defining a Georgian RIA methodology after discussion based on international best practice, in particular as reported by OECD publications;
- building capacities in the ministries by freeing officials from other tasks to start practicing RIA on the basis if possible of current or past legislations;
- setting up an oversight body in charge of verifying the quality of RIAs before the corresponding draft legislation is finalised.
Stakeholders and ministry officials expressed their determination to actively pursue the development of RIA in support of more effective, businesss-friendly regulations in Georgia. (photo below: the moderator with some of the course members.)

Egypt's ERRADA resumes its mission

After a 20 month interruption, the Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity (ERRADA) announced its re-activation as of March 2014 , in order to review regulations related to the business environment. Under new leadership, the agency will aim to complete the inventory and the review of related topics affecting the business climate, and establish a database service and an electronic registry compiling all applicable regulations. 

In doing so, the agency will promote the tools of Better Regulation, specially RIA (regulatory impact assessment) and ex-post evaluation, addressing respectively the flow and stock of regulation. For more, see on ERRADA site the announcements by the minister in charge and the executive director of ERRADA, Tarek Hamza. See also this blog's 2012 post on ERRADA.

Moscow Higher School of Economics discusses Smart Regulation

(Photo Natalya Kazmina )The international workshop organised by the National Research University 'Higher School of Economics(NRU HSE) on 'Development of smart regulation mechanisms: towards a new regulatory policy in Russia' on 14 March was, in your blogger's view, a great success. A success because of the high number (around 60) of participants from not only Moscow administrations, but also from the business community and the other levels of governement (regions and from the Eurasian Economic Commission); and a success for the quality and scope of the discussions.

The RF authorities will draw their own (official) conclusions, but in the meantime, your blogger noted that several key points met with some degree of consensus:

- the need to complete the regulatory policy agenda, currently heavily dependent on RIA, with other BR components such as an overall explicit policy, some type of quality and performace oversight function to check that the policy is effective, a formal consultation policy, etc. 

- thanks to the presence of business sector representatives and supra and sub-national levels of government, it was quite clear that there was a real need for a coordination and consultation process to bring together all the regulators, in the interest of the economy at large and the civil society;

- most encouraging was the adherence of all participants to the principle that regulatory policy was indeed a great priority for the the growth of the economy thanks to more efficient markets and, accessorily, a better Doing Business ranking.

Our warm thanks and congratulations to Daniel Tsygankov, (and his director Andrey Klimenko, Head of the Institute for Public Administration and Municipal Management) for organising what may later appear as the official launch of Smart Regulation in the Russian Federation.

Programme and all presentations online at http://regulatory-policy.hse.ru/en/pres and photos on Daniel's Facebook page (link above).
For Russian speakers, see "Smart Regulation in 1200 words", now in Russian as УМНОЕ РЕГУЛИРОВАНИЕ

British regulatory watchdog shows teeth

The UK independent regulatory oversight body, the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) has just released its 2013 annual activity report, which makes good reading for experts seeking to ascertain the possible authority of such an institution.
The RPC gives figures on how many new departmental proposals for regulatory change it has examined and how it has dealt with departmental estimates as to the anticipated regulatory costs for business and others, showing a strong determination to improve the evidence base for decisions concerning new regulation.
Excerpts from the Executive Summary:
- (the Committee) "rated 75% of first-time impact assessment submissions as fit for purpose, a reduction from 81% in 2012. The reasons for this are not completely clear. In some cases, the work may have been hurried due to parliamentary timetables. In other cases, the pressure to meet the One-in, Two-out policy may have reduced the accuracy of departmental estimates. The introduction of the fast track system in August 2012 makes comparisons between years harder, because some simpler cases no longer need to go through the full scrutiny route. This means that those subject to full scrutiny are now, on average, more complex.
- (the Committee) published four red-rated opinions as a result of departments consulting on proposed new regulations despite the RPC rating the impact assessment as not fit for purpose. "

Smart regulation arrives in Moscow (conference)

(Announcement from Moscow) On March 14, 2014 the National Research University 'Higher School of Economics' (NRU HSE) will host an international workshop 'Development of smart regulation mechanisms: towards a new regulatory policy in Russia'.
The workshop consists of two plenary sessions ('scientific-oriented' and 'practical-oriented'). In turn, the latter is organized by levels of regulation — supranational, national and subnational.
The first session speakers are: Senior adviser on regulatory reform in Ministry of Finance of France, editor of the international blog Smartregulation.net Charles-Henri MONTIN — on potential of OECD countries' best practices in regulatory reform; Head of the RIA Center at the Higher School of Economics Daniel TSYGANKOV — on promising tools for improving regulatory decisions quality; Director General of Information-Consulting Centre "Business Tezaurus" Oleg SHESTOPEROV — on approaches to the rulemaking 'limitation' in the field of business regulation.
The second session speakers are: Director of the Department for Development of Entrepreneurship of the Eurasian Economic Commission Rustam AKBERDIN — on practical regulatory impact analysis in the Eurasian Economic Commission; Director of Program Planning and Regulatory Impact Assessment Department of the Ministry of Economy and Planning of the Ulyanovsk region Maksim SVETUNKOV — on experience of conducting RIA in the region; representative of the RIA Department of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia — practical experience of conductingRIA in the executive bodies, representative of the Economic Department of the State Duma of Russia — the use of financial-economic justification tools in legislative work.
The conference will be broadcast live on the internet, at addresses available on the HSE site on 14 March from 10:00 to 18:00.

Bulgarian businessmen list BR priorities

At a press conference on 31 January of representatives of national employers' associations, the Chair of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry listed key obstructions faced by businesses, including red tape, constantly changing laws and limited access to funding. He emphasized that the Bulgarian President had not carried out his promise made upon assuming office to veto any law which had reached the stage of parliamentary debates without an impact assessment. He added that Bulgarian laws required a "repeat impact assessment" every six months, which had not happened so far.

Other priorities to improve the regulatory environment for business include harmonising tariffs for issuing permits across municpalities, reduction and simplification of the regulatory burden, the mandatory preparation of impact assessment of all laws and progress in the adoption of e-government.

Gulf standardisation agencies study BR tools

(Photo: members of two of the three breakout groups at work under the supervision of Miriam Allam, OECD, in charge of the course. Click to enlarge) 

RIA experts know the importance of checking, at the early stages of analysis of new legislation, the potential of "alternatives to regulation" as another way to reach the substantive policy objectives that their agency or ministry is pursuing without increasing the rule book while improving stakeholder input. Among these alternatives, standards occupy a central position as they can greatly contribute to an efficient business regulatory environment. In this context, the initiative of the Gulf Standardisation Organisation (GSO) to hold a seminar for officials from all Gulf states opens great promise of better regulation in the Gulf region, through the use of better evidence-based and consulted technical standards. Under the title "Building a practical framework for RIA", the course covered all the stages of the RIA process, after which delegates addressed ways and means of making the most of the potential of RIA to improve standards in the region, using international best practice.

The success of the course owes a lot to the hospitality of the Bahrain Ministry of Trade and Commerce (Eng. Al-Moamen) and the supervision of Mr A. Benyaich, senior conformity assessment specialist at GSO. The course was supported by Miriam Allam from OECD (pictured) and your blogger CH Montin (France).