Publications

As part of the “better regulation” agenda, the European Commission created a semi‐independent institution, the Regulatory Scrutiny Board, to monitor the preparation of policy proposals. The position of this Board is potentially wide‐ranging. A proposal that is not given the green light by it cannot proceed in the Commission's internal decisionmaking process. But so far, the Board has only received scant scholarly attention. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board on the Commission's policy preparation. Using machine learning techniques and quantitative text analysis, we study 673 Board opinions and compare almost 100 draft and final policy proposals. Our findings show that the Board is an active watchdog that is taken seriously by the Commission's departments. A full understanding of policy preparation in the EU therefore requires more scholarly attention to the Regulatory Scrutiny Board.

At the moment of writing, we are waiting for the publication of the new Communication of the European Commission on better regulation, originally announced for Spring 2020 and then delayed to Autumn 2020, re-scheduled for February 2021 and now announced for the end of April 2021. To understand the Communication, however, we need a map to navigate the better regulation strategy of the European Commission, and situate events like the publication of a Communication in the broader political context of the European Union (EU). To provide such a map is the aim in this paper. Indeed, this is a good time to look at what has been achieved in the domain of better regulation, and what has changed along the way both in the political context, and in the social climate. Policy paradigms in economic, innovation and sustainability policy have also moved fast. It is always useful to rewind the clock and listen to what the recent political history has to tell us. Hence let us start with the question what was the state of play with better regulation when the new Commission chaired by Ursula von der Leyen started its operations? Was EU-style better regulation in need of major repair, or was it grosso modo doing well?