In October 2017, the Commission published the third Communication on the Better Regulation Agenda, Completing the Better Regulation Agenda: Better solutions for better results. The communication outlines the steps the Commission has taken to improve transparency, legitimacy and accountability.

The Commission indicated that despite the availability of new better regulation instruments, it is clear that the level of participation has not reached its full potential and some stakeholders are still unwilling or able to engage. Therefore,  the Commission has undertaken several actions such as:

• providing better feedback on stakeholders’ views in its impact assessments;
• evaluations and consultation reports show how stakeholder inputs have been used;
• publishing the public consultations for important EU initiatives in all official EU language;
• provided examples in which the working process and added value of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board is explained.

Improvements and follow-up

The Commission again updated its better regulation guidelines and Toolbox substantively.  The Commission also committed itself improve the system of monitoring the application of existing legislation. Finally, the Commission provided an overview of its Commitments of the Inter-Institutional Agreement it had delivered on.

As follow-up actions, the Commission stated it would step up its efforts to quantify the impacts of its proposals and to ensure that all revisions of existing legislation look systematically to simplify and reduce unnecessary costs. This would be done by improving the process of impact assessments.

The Commission also highlighted other actions that had already been proposed in the 2016-Communication, such as stepping up the efforts to implement the Inter-Institutional Agreement, prioritizing certain proposals on the basis of the Commission Working Programme and ensuring that stakeholders are asked systematically for their views about the need and potential to simplify legislation.