In accordance with the principles of sincere cooperation and institutional balance, where the Commission intends to withdraw a legislative proposal, whether or not such withdrawal is followed by a revised proposal, it shall indicate the reasons for such withdrawal and, where appropriate, an indication of the subsequent measures envisaged, as well as a precise timetable, and shall, on that basis, carry out appropriate interinstitutional consultations. realize. The Commission will take due account of and respond to the views of the two co-legislators. On 23 February 2016, the AFCO Committee adopted a report on the conclusion of the IIA, drafted by its President Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland). In addition to the approval of the new agreement and related improvements, the report also identifies areas where further action is needed. These include open-ended questions on the criteria for the delimitation of delegated and implementing acts, on the practical arrangements for interinstitutional cooperation and on the transparency of trilateral negotiations, as well as on a review of the relevant points of Parliament`s Rules of Procedure with a view to possible adaptations. The Agreement shall enter into force upon signature by the parties and shall be binding only on those parties. Parliament and the Council may carry out impact assessments of their substantial amendments if they deem it appropriate and necessary. In addition, the agreement establishes rules for public and stakeholder consultation, as well as for the ex-post evaluation of EU legislation. The agreement underlines the positive contribution of better legal instruments to a better quality of legislation, including an ex-ante impact assessment, stakeholder consultation and ex-post evaluation of legislation. The final agreement explicitly reaffirms that impact assessment is a tool for informed decision-making and is not a substitute for policy-making. By way of derogation from the approach contained in the Commission`s initial proposal on the IIA that all substantial changes should be subject to an impact assessment, the final text provides that the EP and the Council are free to carry out impact assessments of their substantial changes ”if they deem it appropriate and necessary”. An innovation of the final text (as well as of the Better Regulation package in general) is the Commission`s obligation to systematically carry out impact assessments for delegated and implementing acts with potentially significant impacts.
The agreement also underlines the important role of stakeholders` contribution to informed decision-making and calls on the Commission to promote the direct participation of `end-users` of the legislation, in particular SMEs. The new agreement will replace the institutions` common approach to the 2005 impact assessment. Secondly, the agreement is rather unambitious in terms of measures to improve transparency compared to the controversial `trilogue` process. It states that ”the three institutions will ensure the transparency of legislative procedures (…) including the proper conduct of trilateral negotiations” and the improvement of ”communication with the public”. In addition, the institutions have committed to ”facilitate the traceability of the different stages of the legislative process”. Would this include the publication of documents in trilogue? We do not know. Is there a way to ensure that commitments are met, even if they were clear? We know that – no, it wouldn`t exist. The provisions on delegated and implementing acts contain important innovations. In order to safeguard the interests of the Council, the IIA shall also require the Commission to consult Member States` experts and to carry out public consultations before adopting delegated acts. Parliament and the Council should have equal access to information relating to such expert consultations and, in particular, systematic access to meetings of such expert groups. The IIA provides for further negotiations between the institutions to establish delimitation criteria for delegated and implementing acts and finally provides for the establishment of a common register of delegated acts by the end of 2017.
In addition, the agreement invites the Commission to present, by the end of 2016, proposals for the approximation of existing legislation, which still need to be adapted to the new legal framework established by the Treaty of Lisbon (i.B.e. the new hierarchy of standards, including delegated and implementing acts), in particular acts providing for the application of the `regulatory procedure with scrutiny`. As regards delegated acts, the Annex to the Agreement contains a revised `common understanding` between the three institutions, which replaces the 2011 one and sets out in particular certain principles for the preparation of delegated acts by the Commission. Commission Staff Working Document — Overview of the Union`s efforts to simplify and reduce administrative burdens in the accompanying document `Completing the Better Regulation Agenda: Better solutions for better outcomes` (SWD(2017) 675 final, 24.10.2017) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions `Better lawmaking for better lawmaking results — A EU Agenda» (COM(2015) 215 final of 19.5.2015) The new Interinstitutional Agreement omits the abovementioned safeguard measure. However, it should also be noted that this guarantee was not respected by the EU institutions in the previous agreement. This highlights a serious flaw inherent in these instruments, namely that, although they are supposed to be ”legally binding”, they can be deliberately ignored if the institutions decide to do so. The structure of the new IIA for better regulation roughly follows the phases of the policy cycle. It contains provisions concerning, inter alia, common objectives, programming, improvement of regulatory instruments (impact assessment, stakeholder consultation and ex-post evaluation), legal instruments, delegated and implementing acts, transparency, implementation and simplification. .