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The regulatory framework in which businesses operate is a key determinant of their competitiveness, growth and employment performance. One of the key objectives of the European Union's Enterprise Policy is to ensure that the regulatory environment is simple and of high quality.
To make sure that regulation is used only when necessary and that the burdens they impose are proportionate to their aim, the Commission has a number of processes and tools in place. In 2002 the EU adopted a policy on Better Regulation for its institutions. Key elements of this policy are that regulations should be made in accordance with a set of principles (necessity, proportionality, subsidiarity, transparency, accountability, accessibility and simplicity), making full use of impact assessments and consultation as tools of good governance.
The OECD has undertaken studies of regulatory reform in more than 20 OECD countries under the aegis of its Working Party on Regulatory Management, in which the European Commission participates. From these studies and other OECD reports, the EC has developed a good understanding of the development of better regulation-type policies in EU Member States. These policies are variously described as Better Regulation or Regulating Better, and they appear as either explicit policies designed to improve the quality of policy-making and regulation or as part of wider programmes on governance or public administration reform.
In 2004 the EC asked Sigma to undertake a study of the regulatory management capacities of seven new EU Member States (Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia). The study was extended in 2005 to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Peer reviews were carried out in all ten countries in 2005 and 2006. Detailed country reports and a synthesis report were finalised in December 2006. Sigma Paper no. 42, Regulatory Management Capacities of Member States of the European Union that Joined the Union on 1 May 2004, providing orientations for regulatory management in the participating countries, is now available on the Sigma website.
In 2007 Sigma launched peer reviews of regulatory management capacities in Bulgaria and Romania; the final peer reports were forwarded to the EC (DG-Enterprise) in March 2008.
Reform programmes
Sigma acts as advisor to countries on better regulation issues as well as undertaking its role as an assessor of regulatory management capacities in the framework of the yearly assessment process. Sigma organised a series of seminars in 2005 and 2006 to raise awareness of better regulation issues in five new Member States (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Malta and Slovakia).
In May 2008 Sigma co-organised with the Turkish Prime Ministry a seminar on "Administrative Simplification: An overarching policy to maintain a balance between the public interest and the needs of business", which was attended by policy-makers and decision-makers from central management agencies and line ministries.
More on Sigma's priority activity areas.
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