E-learning tool
Welcome to the E-learning tool. You will learn about:
- identifying bottlenecks in existing EU legislation;
- structuring relevant input;
- formulating an effective Better Regulation proposal.
Get started by clicking the blue phases below!
The BRIGHT-tool consists of four sequential phases. Each phase contains several steps, which lay out the tasks required for taking stock of potential EU regulatory bottlenecks and eventually formulating a Better Regulation proposal.
The practical steps of the BRIGHT-tool are supported with relevant theory modules, which explain in more detail the structures, procedures and goals of the Better Regulation Agenda.
A schematic overview of the BRIGHT-tool can be found below.
The first phase is about collecting input from your experts and other stakeholders.
By organizing brainstorm sessions, you can assess which regulatory bottlenecks exist within your area of work.
The second phase is about establishing the details behind your regulatory bottleneck.
In coordination with your experts, you can identify and outline your bottleneck(s).
The third phase of the BRIGHT-tool is about matching your regulatory bottleneck with a suitable oppurtunity in the EU Better Regulation Agenda.
Determine the status of relevant legislation and match different kinds of bottlenecks to a suitable Better Regulation opportunity.
The final phase is about proposing your Better Regulation proposals to the European Commission by making optimal use of the Better Regulation input opportunities.
Alright, lets get to work now!
This first phase is dedicated to collecting and selecting possible bottlenecks.
This can be accomplished by starting the following two steps: host a focus group session, in which you identify issues and bottlenecks; and test for relevancy, assess whether the identified problems are relevant for the EU Better Regulation Agenda.
In the second phase, you are going to delve deeper into the collected bottlenecks and contextualise them by mapping the relevant EU legal framework. For a successful Better Regulation proposal, it is essential to make clear which parts or articles of which EU legislation are problematic. Moreover, you have to classify the collected bottleneck into different categories, because Better Regulation opportunities differ in their appropriateness for different types of bottlenecks.
Classifying bottlenecks is a necessary preparatory step for the next phases of the BRIGHT-tool, in which the selected bottlenecks will eventually be linked to opportunities within the Better Regulation Agenda (BRA) and a Better Regulation proposal is written.
In the previous phases you have identified your bottlenecks and the accompanying EU-legislation. In the third phase we will provide you with the tools you need to explore the EU policy cycle and determine the status of the relevant EU-legislation for your bottleneck(s). This is important because the status of EU-legislations determines which opportunities in the Better Regulation Agenda can be used to submit proposals for Better Regulation. The opportunities for submitting these Better Regulation proposals will also be explained in more detail.
After you have familiarized yourself with the EU policy cycle and the Better Regulations Agenda, you are going to learn how to link your bottleneck(s) with the Better Regulation Agenda.
If you’ve used the BRIGHT-tool before, you can skip step 6 and 7 and continue to step 8.
This step will provide more insight into the EU policy-cycle and the accompanying points of entry for better regulation proposals. We will do this by explaining the cyclical steps of EU policy-making which are:
- Formulation;
- Adoption;
- Implementation;
- Evaluation.
The Better Regulation Agenda (BRA) of 2015 introduced a number of measures and instruments on EU policy-making. The aim was to open up the EU policymaking process further and contribute to higher quality EU legislative proposals. The practical aspects of implementing the BRA in the work of the Commission have been laid down in the Better Regulation Guidelines and Toolbox.
After the introduction of the Better Regulation Agenda (BRA) in 2015, the Commission also published the Better Regulation Guidelines and “Toolbox”. The content of the Toolbox and the Guidelines provide a detailed overview of what the Better Regulations Agenda means for Commission officials and how they should integrate the Better Regulation principles in their daily work.
To do: Familiarize yourself with the EU policy-making cycle and Better Regulation opportunities.
1. Formulation
The formulation step in the EU policy cycle is a process where the European Commission and its subsequent DG’s analyse if a legislative initiative is necessary. This can be done either by amending existing EU legislation or by drafting new EU legislation. During this process the lead DG of the European Commission involved in a new legislative initiative needs political validation to proceed.
This means an authorisation by the relevant political Commission authority to prevent policy drift. In other words, every initiative has to be signed off at the political level of the Commission, to ensure that only policy initiatives in line with the political goals of the current Commission are proposed. Before political validation, only informal consideration of the proposal is allowed.
The formulation process of EU policy-making starts publicly when the European Commission makes its intention to start drafting a new legislative proposal known to the public. This is done either by a policy communication or a
The policy communication is a specific type of Commission Communication. Where green and white papers are used to start a discussion or explain what the Commission might do, the Policy Communication shows what the Commission intends to do. However, the Communication is not codified in the Better Regulation Guidelines as a mandatory instrument in EU policymaking.
Roadmap/Inception Impact Assessment.
The Roadmap and Inception Impact Assessment (IIA) are the first official documents in the legislative cycle. While roadmaps and IIAs serve the same purpose, their level of evaluation differs. A roadmap or IIA should generally outline how, what and why the Commission proposes new legislation.
The publication of a Roadmap is mandatory for DG’s when it is considering a new EU legislative initiative. When a possible new legislative initiative is expected to have significant economic, social or environmental impacts, the Commission is obligated to conduct an Impact Assessment (IA).
The Impact Assessment is an instrument which follows the Inception Impact Assessment. With this instrument, the Commission investigates possible impacts of the envisioned EU legislative action. The Commission is obliged to conduct these for all major initiatives.
In that circumstance, an Inception Impact Assessment (IIA) is published instead of a Roadmap. After the publication of a Roadmap or IIA, a four week open consultation period will start. Stakeholders will be able to express their concerns, remarks or suggestions regarding this possible future legislative initiative.
When an Impact Assessment is conducted, the Commission will consult stakeholders to assess the potential effects of a new legislative proposal. How stakeholders will be involved is laid down in the consultation strategy which is presented beforehand in the IIA.
After the Commission has completed all preparatory steps and it has finished drafting a new legislative proposal, the proposal will be made public and sent to the EU co-legislators (the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers). If an Impact Assessment was conducted it will also be published and together with the legislative proposal. After the legislative proposal is published, stakeholders can provide feedback on the proposal and the Impact Assessment for a period of twelve weeks. The feedback which is received during this period will be transmitted to the EU co-legislators.
2. Adoption
Most EU acts are adopted via the Ordinary Legislative Procedure (OLP) of article 289 TFEU. The OLP works through a process of readings, where the legislative proposal is scrutinised and sent back and forth between the EU-institutions. In principle, the Commission prepares the proposal and the Parliament and Council ultimately adopt the act.
In practice, during most EU legislative procedures, the EU institutions make use of the so-called informal Trilogues to speed up the decision making process. During the legislative procedure
Trilogue refers to tripartite informal negotiations between the EU institutions, that take place during the legislative procedure. The fact that they are informal and not bound to strict first, second and third reading rules, allows for greater flexibility in the decision-making negotiations between the EU institutions.
there are many ways to submit a proposal for better regulation. Since this concerns influencing EU institutions during the legislative process, it falls outside of the scope of the BRIGHT-tool, which emphasis lies on better regulation opportunities outside of the legislative procedure.
3. Implementation
During the stage of implementation, EU legislation is in force and in principle there is less legislative and policy-making activity, with the exception of delegated and implementing acts. These acts, for example, lay down uniform conditions or technical details related to a directive or regulation. They are adopted via comitology or expert groups. Stakeholders can provide input on draft texts of these acts during a period of four weeks.
Apart from the consultation period of new delegated or implementing acts, there are other opportunities to submit proposals for better regulation at this stage of the EU policy-making cycle. One of these opportunities is the REFIT-Platform. Stakeholders can submit their issues and proposals via the Lighten the Load website. When the submission fits the criteria of the Platform, it will be discussed by the Platform and advise the European Commission about the submitted issue.
4. Evaluation
The evaluation stage of the EU policy cycle is a process whereby the European Commission evaluates EU legislation. The publication of an Evaluation Roadmap
The Evaluation Roadmap is basically the same as the ‘regular’ Roadmap. The difference is that the Evaluation Roadmap outlines the Commission’s plans for an Evaluation or Fitness Check instead of legislation.
always precedes an Evaluation or Fitness Check, but has to abide by the same general rules as the normal roadmap in terms of consultation. It will outline why an evaluation is being considered and lay down
An Evaluation gathers evidence to assess how an EU legislation, policy or spending activity has performed (or is working), and considers why this has occurred. The Commission investigates if the EU act is still fit for purpose and delivers the intended objective at a minimum cost. The Fitness Check is an evaluation of several pieces of legislation.
the stakeholder consultation strategy during the Evaluation or Fitness Check. After an Evaluation Roadmap is published a four week open consultation period will start. This will enable stakeholders to make known to the European Commission their concerns, remarks or suggestions regarding this planned evaluation and EU legislation in question.
During the conduction of an Evaluation or Fitness Checks, the Commission is likely to consult stakeholders to assess well-informed how an EU legislation has performed.
After the evaluation
When an Evaluation or Fitness Check has been conducted, a possible next step could be that the European Commission considers amending or replacing the EU legislation in question during the Evaluation or Fitness Checks. This would entail the start of the formulation stage of the EU policy-making cycle and its subsequent components such as Roadmaps and Impact Assessments. This sequence of stages of the EU policy-making cycle is also laid down in the Better Regulation Guideline as the Evaluate First Principle.
However, this does not mean that an Evaluation or Fitness Checks is immediately followed by a new legislative initiative. If that is the case, stakeholders could again make use of the REFIT Platform submit their issues and proposals via the Lighten the Load website. New legislative proposals can immediately follow evaluations; this is called the back-to-back procedure.
Ideally, an evaluation of legislation is immediately followed by an impact assessment for new legislation.. This back-to-back approach requires a lot of planning, which is why the Better Regulation Toolbox outlines a special approach. This approach means that, if a back-to-back evaluation and impact assessment is planned, only one roadmap/IIA has to be published.
In this step we will explain how the legislative and policy-trackers of the EU work, and how to identify the status legislation in the EU policy-making cycle. To help you determine the status of the EU-legislation relevant to your bottlenecks in the legislative cycle, you can use publicly available legislative- and policy-trackers. In this step, we will introduce the essential digital venues to find up-to-date information about the legislative process and EU policymaking developments.
This database covers most (legal)texts published by EU-institutions and is updated daily. It allows the user to search for documents using titles but also using the inter-institutional codes. Not only is it possible to find all relevant texts in Eurlex, it also tracks the progress of legislative procedures.
Oeil, is the legislative observatory for the European Parliament. It also provides an overview of legislative procedures such as Eurlex. However, Oeil is more focused on the legislative process within the European Parliament and thus provides more details that are not availible in Eurlex.
This public service is maintained by volunteers from inside the European Parliament and is not directly associated with any EU institutions. It can, however, be a very powerful tool for tracking the progress of legislative procedures, at the committee level, in the European Parliament.
A good start to any search is to take a look at the Commission work program. This program is published yearly and details what the plans of the Commission are. The work program is a useful document, especially because the Commission is the only institution with a role in the legislative process without its own dedicated legislation tracker.
The Better Regulation Roadmap is part of the BRIGHT-tool and gives you a clear view of the whole legislative cycle of the EU. Take a look!
Practical tip: the interinstitutional code
In order to use these trackers as efficiently as possible, the best idea is to use the interinstitutional code when browsing. This code is the same among all institutions and prevents unnecessary searches.
To do: Become familiar with the policy trackers.
What is the status of your legislation?
The first thing you have to establish is in what stage of the policy cycle the EU legislation, is located. As described in the previous step, this could be in the stage of formulation, adoption, implementation or evaluation. You can find this information for the relevant legislation by using the policy and legislative trackers introduced above. A good starting point is EUR-Lex. After that, you could consult: Oeil, Parltrack, Consilium and the Commission Work Programme to gather more detailed information.
Legislative process
If there is not a legislative procedure in progress, you should investigate if the EU legislation in question is in in the evaluation or formulation stage. This can be done by checking the website of the DG of the relevant policy area and see if any announcement or communications are published regarding the particular EU legislation. If the European Commission intends to conduct an evaluation or Impact Assessment it will be announced via the Have your say-website. As such, it is therefore critical to also check this website in order to determine if the EU legislation related to your bottleneck(s) is in the evaluation or formulation stage.
Quite often, EU legislation is in the implementation stage. Which means that it is in force and that no evaluation has been announced. This does not mean there are no Better Regulation input opportunities! There is almost always the REFIT-platform to consider unless your bottleneck concerns the legislative purpose of the legislation. Another possibility is the Urban Agenda Action Plan or engaging with relevant actors in the Council or Parliament.
Practical tip: keep looking
In order to establish a complete overview of a legislative proposal or process, it is advisable to use all legislative- and policy-trackers in unison. Only by consulting all sources is it possible to acquire an accurate overview.
To do: Assess status of EU legislation related to your bottleneck(s) and list the status in the framework table
Now that you have identified your bottleneck(s), mapped the relevant EU legislation and its corresponding status in the EU policymaking process, it is time to link them all together. In the next step, we learn at which digital venue of the EU policy cycle your Better Regulation proposal could be best submitted.
In the final step of phase 3, you will match the identified bottlenecks you have listed in your framework table with Better Regulation Agenda opportunities related to the status of the relevant EU-legislation. Below you can find the Better Regulation Roadmap. In this roadmap an overview of the different stages of the EU policy-making cycle is presented, combined with opportunities for the submission of Better Regulation proposals. Furthermore, the Better Regulation Roadmap indicates which type of bottlenecks are appropriate for these distinct Better Regulation Agenda opportunities. The classification of bottlenecks into different categories was explained in step 5.
Better Regulation Roadmap
When you use the Better Regulation Roadmap and your framework table, you can assess which Better Regulation Agenda opportunities are available for the bottlenecks listed in your framework table.
Now that you are aware of the input opportunities available and have selected a digital venue to submit a Better Regulation proposal, you can move on to the last phase of the BRIGHT-Tool. In this phase, we will help you with proposing your bottlenecks through the Better Regulation input moments available!
To do: Match your bottleneck with the available Better Regulation Agenda opportunities.
The fourth and final phase of the BRIGHT-tool is about proposing your Better Regulation input. After identifying your bottlenecks, the corresponding legislation and the status of that legislation, the final phase will show you how and where to submit your input.
In other words: this is where theory will meet practice.