The Commission’s Regulatory Scrutiny Board – an independent body, providing quality control and support at early stages of the legislative process – has published its 2021 annual report. The report assesses the quality of the impact assessments and evaluations carried out by the Commission in 2021. Given the increased legislative workload in recent years, the Regulatory Scrutiny Board is playing an ever more important role to ensure the coherence and effectiveness of our legislative proposals.
Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight Maroš Šefčovič said:
“In challenging such as these, it is more important than ever to legislate as efficiently as possible for the benefit of Europeans and European businesses. It also remains vital that we keep moving forward to deliver on our green and digital ambitions in a fair manner. The work of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board is playing an indispensable role in putting forward legislation that is of the highest quality, brings clear benefits to Europeans, and does so at minimum costs. I am proud of its strong reputation, while we will continue to strive for excellence.”
The Board scrutinised 83 impact assessments (compared to 41 in 2020), 15 major evaluations including two fitness checks and four resubmissions from 2020. Despite the increased legislative work, the quality of impact assessments and evaluations is improving: the share of the negative opinions by the Regulatory Scrutiny Board declined from 46% in 2020 to 37% in 2021, while the initial positive opinions increased from 12% to 22%.
The Board also continued to provide methodological advice to the Commission’s departments throughout the year and advised the Secretariat-General on the further development of the Better Regulation agenda, notably the revised better regulation guidelines and toolbox.
More information is available online.