New insights to enhance regulatory governance
Laws and regulations represent one of the backbones of a successful EU, from driving innovation and supporting business to combatting climate change and helping raise the standard of living. It is important, however, to monitor regulatory government activity and verify if and how it has created positive changes on the ground. The EU-funded project ALREG (Analysing learning in regulatory governance) investigated the formulation of laws in several EU countries, namely Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom. It analysed impact assessments, mapped existing legislation and conducted a meta-analysis of case studies to achieve its aims. Put more simply, the project team documented how better regulation is changing and what has changed because of better regulation in order to provide new governance architectures for lawmaking. It sought to increase the competitiveness of the regulatory environment and to secure wide social legitimacy for the different systems of rules. One important factor under study involved looking at whether the costs and administrative obligations that regulation has brought about are justified, particularly during economic crises. In general, the team found that current regulatory impact assessment to appraise costs and benefits of new regulations for the economy, environment and society exposed many inadequacies. It noted that effective impact assessment and regulatory measures must be informed within a political and administrative context supported by cross-national learning regarding regulation. The project's findings have led to novel measures of regulatory performance and have changed policymakers' thinking about assessing regulatory impact, facilitating learning about regulation across countries. ALREG outcomes were distributed to different stakeholders such as civil society organisations, business federations and policy officers, as well as to concerned stakeholders through conferences and publications. The project's beneficiaries – including EU bodies, The World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Dutch government – have also benefited from the research, setting the wheels in motion for an improved regulatory framework in Europe.
Keywords
Regulatory governance, laws, regulations, ALREG, impact assessments, legislation
