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

Good roadmap for regulatory reform (Rhode Island)

Experts seeking a recent formulation of a regulatory policy addressing the needs of small business could do well to check out a recent article by Ms Serpa, Rhode Island Democratic state representative and chairwoman of the House Committee on Small Business. "Regulatory reform isn’t the sexiest topic in state government, but for small-business owners it’s everything. I know this, many of my colleagues in the General Assembly know this, and it is my belief that Rhode Island is coming close to achieving tangible progress in streamlining our regulatory processes."
Ms Sherpa refers to a RI Office of Regulatory Reform paper entitled “Period 1 Regulatory Look Back Report”  which takes stock of the current review of all legislation and formulates 10 key recommendations (summarized as follows):
•"Map the regulatory environment: Rhode Island should provide an up-to-date map of state-government organization so small-business owners aren’t lost as to where to find information about how to start a business, how to expand their businesses or simply how to stay in compliance with state guidelines.
•Reduce the number of statutory exemptions: More than 20 percent of reviewed regulations across 22 regulatory entities were exempt from the reform process because of either separation-of-powers considerations or the law’s definition of “small business.” The lack of clarity in the definition of “small business” poses a consistent challenge, and it’s one ORR recommends we tackle in the future.
•Improve accessibility to regulations: Small businesses reported needing outside professional help to navigate the 26,240 pages of regulation. The report aptly points out that those documents are the equivalent of 10.1 copies of “War and Peace.” To worsen matters, each regulatory entity uses a different template for writing regulations. The bottom line: We need to make this process more uniform.
•Rejoin separated regulation: Breaking down one regulation into separate regulations in the past has resulted in confusion about how to comply with basic guidelines. This must be rectified.
•Reform audit, inspection and enforcement processes: These practices have as much impact on small business as regulatory policy and need to be reviewed alongside regulatory reform.
•Promote lawmaker and small business participation in reform: Lawmakers should be involved in this process just as much as members of the business community should provide feedback. We are only in the first stage of recommendations. There needs to be more dialogue. I would even go one step further to suggest a presentation to the General Assembly on these ORR findings and recommendations so we can put a spotlight on these issues and deliberate on them effectively in future sessions.
•Support improved cost-benefit analysis: The state is always concerned with data quality, and we want to strive to ensure that it can accurately quantify basic regulatory statistics.
•Push regulatory reform efforts beyond current performance levels: Of the 179 regulations identified by entities and ORR as having a small-business impact, 26 were offered for amendment and repeal. We can do better. As we move forward with rigorous review, ORR will challenge our departments to find more areas of reform. A large part of our economic environment is dependent upon how quickly this state can turn around and streamline these processes for small businesses."

French national assembly adopts regulatory watchdog

According to the Gazette des Communes, MPs adopted on 19 September a bill tabled by two senators to create a national council for the evaluation of norms. This new body (CNEN) would replace an existing council, with added power to examine the regulatory stock, not only the flow of new legislation and its advice wold be binding on the government. This development follows the trend in France to focus regulatory policy on consequences for subnational authorities, which have many unfunded legal obligations and have accrued heavy deficits recently denounced by the national Audit Court. As part of the same policy, a moratorium on all new legislation affecting local authorities was decreed on 17 July.

Decentralised, contractual policies for growth (UK)

A new "initial guidance document" (more will be published in September) dated 25 July  further clarifies the UK Government's growth policy, and how it relies on Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), contractual agreements between local authorities and business, to deliver results. The policy had first been defined in the 'Government's Response to the Heseltine Review'. The core proposition of Lord Heseltine's report is a decentralised approach that is intended to "break Whitehall's monopoly on resources and decision making," to empower Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to drive forward growth in their local areas. Alongside this, the report makes a number of recommendations that strengthen the underpinnings of long-term growth, from changes to the way in which Whitehall supports growth, to strengthening partnerships between government and business, and business and education. This guidance fleshes out how this process is to be enacted: "Through Growth Deals, LEPs can seek freedoms, flexibilities and influence over resources from government, and a share of the Local Growth Fund to achieve their identified growth priorities. In return, the government expects LEPs to demonstrate that they are committed to the growth agenda, including by developing ambitious, multi-year strategic economic plans. We also expect the local authority members of LEPs to prioritise economic development and work collaboratively across the LEP area."

Mexico publishes a new regulatory reform agenda

The Mexican Regulatory Reform Agency (COFEMER) has just informed this network of the content of the new policy of the recently appointed federal government by providing a translation into English of a key document “National Agenda for Regulatory Improvement”. The contents have been public for some time in Spanish on COFEMER’s site. They had also been presented by the DG of the agency at the 31st conference of Mexican States in April 2013. In summary, the new agenda calls for a strengthening of the policy by inter alia “promoting the creation of a public authority for the implementation of regulatory reform” at sub-national level, creating a joint forum with business, conducting periodic assessments of regulatory reform policies. In total, 23 reform options are outlined for implementation in coming months. Most follow closely OECD the advice contained in the 2012 Recommendation on regulatory policy and governance and emphasizes issues linked to sub-national regulatory authorities, with solutions which will be useful in other countries.

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». "

"Absurd" regulation to be hunted down (France)

There are quite a number of countries acknowledging that they suffer from "regulatory inflation" and probably others facing the same problem without admitting it. France has made it a major driver for regulatory reform, especially when it comes to regulation imposed on local authorities, often source of heavy compliance burdens. This issue has been reported quite frequently on this blog, but two newly released documents shed some more light on the topic. First, a parliamentary report describes the situation in detail and presents a bill to put an end to the problem. Secondly, a particularly rich study has just been published by Les Echos, an economic newspaper. In an article titled "France: the country with 400,000 regulations," it explains that "faced with greater demand for security or protection of the environment, regulations have multiplied, and become a real headache. To remedy this, the government has set up a mission to list the texts considered "absurd" that can be easily repealed." The article contains two picturesque examples of such absurd regulation.

4th annual Red Tape Awareness week (Canada)

Among sub-national governments giving priority to supporting business, British Columbia (BC) has a long-standing excellent performance, as illustrated recently by two events:

• the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) organises every year a Red Tape Awareness week (semaine de sensibilisation à la paperasserie), which took place this year from 21 to 25 January 2013. The CFIB webpage lists a few other successful initiatives, including international comparisons and "Real Examples of Ridiculous Government Rules."
• as reported on 24 January by the Vancouver Sun, BC has the highest ranking in Canada for cutting red tape. Authorities have a legal requirement to publish annual reports about regulatory reform. Official figures show "a reduction of regulatory requirements by more than 42 per cent since 2001 - that's more than 155,000 off the books. We've also committed to a net-zero increase in regulatory requirements through to 2015". See also, in that same article, the New West Partnership commercial vehicle website launched in June 2012 by three provinces (BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan), offering a single website for the trucking industry to access information on permits, routes and other commercial vehicle information.

France: alléger les coûts réglementaires sur les collectivités

Sous le titre "Normes: nouveau plan pour juguler l'inflation," la Gazette des Communes analyse le plan présenté au gouvernement français pour maîtriser la prolifération des textes normatifs qui imposent des charges aux collectivités territoriales. Alain Lambert et Jean-Claude Boulard, ont présenté, le 17 janvier, leur programme (incluant des objectifs quantifiés et un calendrier) et la méthode pour s'attaquer aux 400 000 normes qui étouffent les collectivités territoriales. Le président de la Commission consultative d'évaluation des normes, président (DVD) du conseil général de l'Orne et le maire (PS) du Mans, s'étaient vus confier le 19 décembre 2012 cette mission, désormais inscrite dans le cadre de la modernisation de l'action publique (MAP). Ainsi, une liste de normes appelées à être abrogées devrait être proposée le 15 mars 2013.
Parallèlement, une proposition de loi portant création d'une Haute autorité chargée du contrôle et de la régulation des normes applicables aux collectivités locales, portée par Jacqueline Gourault et M. Jean-Pierre Sueur et déposée au Sénat le 12 novembre 2012 est, quant à elle, discutée à partir du 28 janvier 2013.

Victoria (AUS) appoints red tape commissioner

As reported by Property Observer Melbourne yesterday, Australia's first red tape commissioner has beenappointed in Victoria and will start compiling a list of problem areas to target and bring to the state's government's attention.
Already in October, the Federal Government has appointed the first small business commissioner.
Victoria has a target to reduce red tape by 25% – if this experiment proves useful, other states could follow with similar appointments

Deregulation agenda in France

Yesterday (18 Dec.) in line with previously announced plans, the first meeting of the interministerial committee on modernisation of public action confirmed the objectives and ways of controling the regulatory flow, with a set of measures seen by some observers (for example Acteurs Publics article) as a "plan antinormes", something close to a deregulation agenda. This initiative is however primarily aimed at helping local government authorities face the constant stream of new rules from the centre, publicly denounced as excessive by President Hollande, and now the prime concern of better regulation in France.
The array of tools to be used include a better evaluation of public policies, and a "one-in, one-out" rule already announced by President Hollande.
For the wider context of administrative reform, see the PM's declaration closing the CIMAP meeting (VB.)

China tests regulatory reform at province level

The regulatory reform scene in China has up to now not provided much news, but this may be soon changing. According to the People's Daily online published yesterday, "the central government has made Guangdong Province a pilot region for reform of the state and provincial regulatory and administrative process by removing or adjusting 100 regulations that require government approval, the Guangzhou-based Nandu Daily reported Monday.
The State Council recently issued an official document that approves the trial reforms during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15). Thirty-four administrative approval items will be canceled and the administration of 34 other items will be transferred from the province to lower levels of government. In addition, 32 items will be handed over to industry associations. The decision was made at an executive meeting of the cabinet presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao in August, the newspaper said.
The move is in a bid to reduce approval requirements and let markets allocate resources more efficiently.
On the list of the 34 regulations that have been canceled are the annual examination of tour guides, approval of building companies that conduct small-volume trade with Taiwan and approval of used car appraisal agencies.
Administration of 32 items will be gradually handed over to associations of specific industries, which aims at reducing government intervention and giving full play to markets. This list includes the annual check of asset evaluation agencies, registration of software products and hotel star ratings.
Provincial government departments will administer 19 regulations, while 15 others will be regulated by lower level governments. This covers programs in energy, transportation, raw materials, mechanic manufacturing and establishing local enterprises.
"The reform of administrative approval will help transform the government's functions, clarify its responsibilities and make more room for social development. This is to build a bigger society and smaller government," Zhu Lijia, a public administration professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times.

France: modernisation and competitiveness

As reported earlier this month, intense discussions are currently on-going (following the change of government) in the French political sphere about the future strategies for modernising public administration and making the national economy more competitive. This debate may interest experts as the key proposals are comparatively unconventional. Here is a summary of current trends, from press articles.

Mexico states strengthen multi-level governance

Your blogger was priviledged to be invited to the 30th meeting of the Regulatory Reform network jointly organised for the 32 united states of Mexico by COFEMER (the federal BR agency) and the State of Hidalgo in Pachuca. Opened by Governor Olvera, attended by more than 120 directors and experts of Better Regulation from 25 of the 32 states, and officials of the federal body in charge of BR, this event showed the long-term dedication of Mexico to regulatory reform and the will to constantly perfect the agenda.

Announced: Regulatory Governance Conference in Mexico 17-19 October

The 30th national conference on improving regulation will be organised on 17-19 October by COFEMER (an agency of the Mexican ministry of economy) and the state of Hidalgo and will be devoted to Regulatory Governance, with an emphasis on drawing practical lessons for action at federal, state and local levels aiming at deregulation and administrative simplification. Information about programme and registration on the Hidalgo Government site.

Priorities for public administration reform (France)

The appointment of a new government is a choice moment to highlight priorities or announce implicitly future reforms. The new government resulting from the election of prsident François Hollande contains a few useful indications as intentions for the future of public service reform. Commentators note that the "reform of the state" is to be joined up with the civil service department (instead of being part of the ministry of finance), and the new drive of the ensemble is to be devoted to decentralisation, i.e. empowerment of local authorities. The end of the apparent link with budget issues is lamented by some, applauded by others, as the new president has promised to abolish the policy of only replacing one official for every two reaching retirement age. The new minister has explained some of the themes for the consultation on possible reforms: distribution of competences between the levels of local government, how to encourage local merging of communes, reviewing the election mode of local councillors.

Simplification commissioner's first annual report (France)

The French government's website published on 20 April the first annual report of the commissioner in charge of simplification, whose rôle is to monitor the moratorium on governement regulations concerning local authorities, enforce the common commencement dates scheme and check the quality of RIAs.
The report indicates that the commissioner examined around 700 draft texts concerning local government and business, rejecting 14 and placing reservations on some 45% of them. The remainder were often discussed with the originating ministry before being given the green light. Another new product related to the commissioner's work is the online registry of business regulations ranked by commencement date already lists 500 texts.

Red Tape Taskforce created in Queensland

A Red Tape Reduction Taskforce has just been set up in Queensland. It will report by mid July to the state government "about what regulations can be done away with," whether they come from the state or the local level, though most texts are expected to come from the state.
The taskforce brings together council representatives as well as experts in planning, building, environment health and licensing. Its focus will be to identify red tape and regulation that can be removed to help small business. The objective is "to cut red tape by 20 per cent ... or some 18,000 pages."
For background, see the brochure from the Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A September 2011 report from the Productivity Commission gives an overview of the regulatory role of local government (some 580 entities in 8 states).

Commission lists gaps in implementation of EU law

Smart regulators know how important it is to ensure proper implementation of regulation if the underlying policy objectives are to be met. This is all the more important when the norm requires specific measures to be taken by different implementing authorities. Such a situation is to be found in the European Union where the directives adopted in Brussels need to be transposed into national law to become effective and citizens and companies from across the Union to reap the benefits of the Internal Market and other European standards. Hence the importance of the issue of "application of EU law" and the procedure to identify and correct failure by Member States(MS) to transpose directives (the "infringement procedure"). The Commission has just published its monthly package of infringement decisions by which it pursues legal action against MS for failing to comply properly with their obligations under EU law. The package consists of 170 decisions, including 37 reasoned opinions and 5 referrals to the European Union's Court of Justice. Individual press releases explain the background and reasons for each Commission decision, which specifies which MS are at fault, in a rare case of an international organisation "naming and shaming" its members.
The infringement procedure begins with a request for information (a "Letter of Formal Notice") to the MS concerned, which must be answered within a specified period, usually two months. If the Commission is not satisfied with the information and concludes that the MS in question is failing to fulfil its obligations under EU law, the Commission may then send a formal request to comply with EU law (a "Reasoned Opinion"), calling on the Member State to inform the Commission of the measures taken to comply within a specified period, usually two months. If a MS fails to ensure compliance with EU law, the Commission may then decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice.
The decision to open infringement proceedings against a Member State is taken by the Commission on the basis of an unbiased legal analysis conducted by the its services on the documents and information submitted by the parties and on any complaints.

Senate delays simplification of regulation on local authorities (France)

In these last weeks of the parliamentary session, there is a flurry of activity in simplification, with unfortunately perhaps more haste than speed.

1/ A new bill from the Senate floor, especially targeted at lowering the regulatory burden for local authorities (a case of excessive "regulation inside government" - RIG) was probably filed too late. Following a mission entrusted by President Sarkozy, Senator Doligé presented in June 2011 a report on the simplification of the "normative edifice" applying to local government containing some 248 practical measures. The bill now enacts the proposals requiring changes in legislation. There had been hopes that it would be discussed and perhaps adopted before the presidential elections, but when it came to agenda setting earlier this month, the bill was sent to commission reading, thereby delaying adoption in such a short timeframe. The main reason for the move is that the text includes a number of (rather contentious for some) principles, such as "the proportionality of norms according to the size of the local authority" to alleviate the compliance burden of the smaller entities. The discussion in commission highlighted the risk of introducing an "inequality of citizens" in respect of local public services, such as social services which are provided by the communes.

2/ The government was hoping to crown its local finance policy with this bill: the minister in charge has made known his surprise at the Senate's move, recalling the main stages of the policy. In 2008, it had established a dedicated unit within Parliament to systematically check new legislation for burdens imposed on local authorities (the " consultative commission on the evaluation of norms") and in the wake of the April 2010 conference on deficits, a moratorium on new norms applying to local authorities (see circulars dated 6 July 2010 and 17 February 2011.) Further impetus was given by President Sarkozy himself in a speech to the association of maires in November 2010.
The economic relevance of the issue was again highlighted by the organisation by the presidency of a conference on local finance, at the Elysée palace on 10 February (see good press file from the "association of Départements") just before the launch of the presidential election campaign.

3/ the Senate voted yesterday (20 Feb) to bury the 7th simplification law, following up on its opposition in principle to "catch-all" texts (lois "fourre-tout") restated on 15 Februrary in a negative commission report. To understand the move, it is useful to remember that following its last part renewal, the Senate does not have the same political majority as the National Assembly and the Government.
In its second reading on 31 January under the "accelerated procedure", the National Assembly had mocked the Senate's apparent reluctance to adopt new legislative techniques. It is probable that the National Assembly will use its constitutional prerogative to orverride the Senate's opposition and enact the simplification omnibus.