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Better Law-Making — Agreement between EU institutions

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Better Law-Making — Agreement between EU institutions

SUMMARY OF:

Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on Better Law-Making

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THIS AGREEMENT?

It aims to improve the way the EU makes laws by ensuring that the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission (‘the 3 Institutions’) are committed to sincere and transparent cooperation throughout the entire legislative cycle.
The agreement replaces the Interinstitutional Agreement of 16 December 2003 without prejudice to the Framework Agreement on relations between the Parliament and the Commission of 20 October 2010.

KEY POINTS

Annual and multiannual programming

At the beginning of each legislature, the 3 Institutions will agree on multiannual priorities. In addition, they will each year adopt a joint declaration on annual interinstitutional priorities based on the Commission’s annual work programme. The first such Joint Declaration was adopted for 2017.

Impact assessments

The agreement establishes that the Commission should carry out impact assessments for all its major legislative and non-legislative proposals. The elements that should be covered by impact assessments include:

economic, environmental and social impacts;
subsidiarity and proportionality;
impacts on competitiveness and SMEs in particular;
digital aspects;
territorial impacts.

The Commission will rely on a Regulatory Scrutiny Board, partly made up of external experts, to carry out an objective quality check of the Commission’s impact assessment.

The Parliament and the Council may carry out impact assessments on their substantial amendments when they consider this appropriate and necessary. In addition, the agreement sets rules for public and stakeholder consultations and ex post evaluation of EU legislation.

Transparency

The Agreement stresses the importance of enhancing the transparency of legislative procedures, including:

agreeing improved practical arrangements between the 3 Institutions for cooperation and information-sharing on international agreements;
an appropriate handling of trilogues*;
joint public announcements of the successful outcome of the legislative process;
a joint database on legislative files allowing clear traceability of the various steps of the legislative process.

Delegated and implementing acts

The Agreement sets rules to clarify and facilitate the use of delegated and implementing acts in accordance with Articles 290 and 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and contains an annex with standard clauses to this effect. In particular, it was agreed that:

the Commission will consult EU countries’ experts in the preparation of delegated acts, and Parliament and Council experts will have equal access to all related meetings and documents;
there will be a prompt alignment of all pre-Lisbon Treaty files;
a further negotiation will take place to specify non-binding delineation criteria for delegated and implementing acts (i.e. non-binding criteria for the application of Articles 290 and 291 TFEU); and
a public register for delegated acts will be set up (the Interinstitutional Register of Delegated Acts ‘DelReg’ has been in operation since the end of 2017).

Implementing and applying EU law

The agreement includes 3 innovations to help improve and clarify the implementation and application of EU law:

1.
EU countries must clearly inform the public of measures taken in EU countries that incorporate EU law into national law or implement EU law, in line with the Joint Declarations of 2011 regarding explanatory documents which accompany the notification of such measures;
2.
EU countries are asked to clearly identify in the transposing act (i.e. the act that incorporates the EU legislation into national law) or associated document when they add aspects to their national law which are in no way related to what the EU act contains (‘gold plating’);
3.
the Commission should include any instances of gold plating in its annual report to the Parliament and the Council.

Simplification

The Agreement requires the 3 institutions to cooperate to simplify legislation and reduce burdens whilst ensuring that the objectives of the legislation are met. The 3 Institutions confirm:

their commitment to using the technique of recasting to modify existing legislation more frequently and, where recasting is not appropriate, codifying legislative texts as soon as possible after the adoption of an amending act;
their will to promote the most efficient regulatory instruments, such as harmonisation and mutual recognition, to avoid over-regulation and reduce administrative burdens.

The Commission presents an annual burden survey of the results of the EU’s efforts to simplify legislation and reduce administrative burdens, making use of its Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT).

Implementation of the Agreement

Paragraph 50 of the Agreement envisages that the 3 Institutions regularly take stock of its implementation via the Interinstitutional Coordination Group and that they meet annually at political level to evaluate progress.

FROM WHEN DOES THE AGREEMENT APPLY?

It has applied since 13 April 2016.

BACKGROUND

For more information, see:

Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-making — briefing (European Parliament)
Better Law-Making Agreement (Council of the European Union).

KEY TERMS

Trilogues: informal tripartite meetings attended by representatives of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Interinstitutional agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on Better Law-Making (OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, pp. 1-14)

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