The new EC impact assessment: what for? EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION Sophie Dupressoir

OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION  Political context  Key features of impact assessment  Limits of IA

POLITICAL CONTEXT Better Regulation Action Plan AND the European Strategy for Sustainable Development  An effective and efficient Regulatory Environment  More coherent preparation of EU decision-making (economic, social, environmental impacts) Key policy documents EC Communication on Impact assessment – COM(2002) 276 final + Technical guidelines EC Communication on Impact Assessment: Next Steps - In support of competitiveness and sustainable development SEC(2004)1377

Impact assessment: Key features (1)  Covers all major initiatives  Move away from partial assessment to a cross-sectoral approach (indirect effects, trade-offs)  Integrate and replace all the previous EC assessment systems  Active involvement of all relevant stakeholders, at earlier stages of the assessment process

Key features (2): A DYNAMIC PROCESS Definition of the problem → identification of options ↔ analysis of impacts → political decision  Alternative options should be considered, including « No policy change »  Iterative process, in order to achieve best effectiveness of proposal  Evaluation of trade-offs (mitigating measures)

Key features (2) : ANALYSING THE IMPACT  Positive and negative effects  Balancing the short-trem and long-term effects  Identify the distributive effects (“losers” and “winners”) and the effects on existing inequalities  Internal / external (non-EU) impacts  Qualitative, quantitative or monetary terms

LIMITS OF IMPACT ASSESSMENT  Sustainable development is not taken as the reference (lack of knowledge on interlinkages )  Long term, positive effects are underestimated (e.g. innovation, health)  Limits of economic calculation (in case of uncertainty, serious risk, cultural differences, discounting rate)  Macro-level assessments vs. distributive impacts  Lack of real strategy for consultation  Differences of capacities between stakeholders

CONCLUSION  IA is a tool to inform decision making - Does not give “the” solution  IA is a good tool to learn about potential implications of a regulatory initiative  Stakeholders’ participation should move from “external quality control” to structured dialogue and “learning by doing” process.