On the 2nd of December 2020, the European Commission launched to the public the MIDAS inventory, aimed at providing a user-friendly platform to discover the models behind EU policies.
In particular, such a version of MIDAS allows exploring the 35 models used for impact assessments since 2017.
MIDAS is developed and managed by the European Commission Competence Centre on Modelling.
Under the Better Regulation Guidelines and Toolbox, the Commission uses such models to support policymaking.
Indeed, MIDAS documents models and their contributions to Commission impact assessment in evaluating the environmental, economic and social impacts of policy options.
The opening of MIDAS to the public makes it possible for citizens, organizations, and companies to understand better how the Commission works to structure and evaluate new policies.
MIDAS aims to describe the ratio and intended use of a model, paying attention to the quality and transparency matters to permit the traceability of models’ results.
Besides, it makes it possible to facilitate the easy understanding of impact assessments.
For example, taking into account one of the models currently available on the MIDAS (precisely the “CAPRI – Common Agricultural Policy Regional Impact Analysis”), it is possible to see at it is divided into a) overview, b) details, c) quality and transparency, d) policy support and impact assessment, e) references and f) versions.
The Overview page describes the primary purpose in a few sentences and presents a summary of the modelling system.
The Details part displays the model structure and approach. In particular, it analyzes the economic model, divided into supply module and market module and adds even a post-model analysis. Following that, it indicates the inputs and parameterization, as well as the outputs.
The Quality and Transparency section answers with “yes” or “no”, following with brief details, to several precise questions.
Arriving at the Policy support and impact assessment part, the latter presents the policy areas in which the model aims at contributing, together with the phases of the policy cycle. Besides, such a section displays the use of the model in impact assessments by the European Commission and highlights the impacts in some given areas.
The last two sections focus on relevant references and the versions of the model.
Following what above represented, the precise final aim of such a public opening is to increase trust and confidence in these models and in their contribution to policymaking.
(Luca Megale)