The issue of burden and cost reduction, both regulatory and administrative, has become a leitmotif that regularly appears at the table of the European Council. In this respect, the "one in, one out" regulatory compensation system, which consists of replacing any new cost linked to a legislative... Find out more

This report critically examines progress on the European Union’s ‘Better Regulation Agenda’. Although originally intended to simplify the EU’s legislation and improve its quality, there are suspicions that the Agenda has been hijacked to be used as a tool to make companies more competitive. The... Find out more

This Working Paper aims to shed light on the machinations behind recent developments regarding the Better Regulation agenda. How should we interpret the Commission’s insistence on relentlessly attacking its own legislation? Why does it constantly refer to the costs, yet never once mention the... Find out more

This working paper provides a legal analysis of the inclusion of social and environmental clauses in the modernisation of the EU's public procurement directives. It focuses in particular on Directive 2014/24/EU and evaluates the measures and provisions dealing with the obligation to comply with... Find out more

This Working Paper provides a clear but critical assessment of the EU’s process of simplification and qualitative improvement of the ‘acquis’, a process originally known as ‘Better Law-making’, subsequently as ‘Smart regulation’ and, in its latest incarnation, as ‘Regulatory Fitness and Performance... Find out more

This Working Paper provides a critical analysis of the EU Commission’s proposals to modernise and simplify its rules on public procurement. The author of the paper, Eric Van den Abeele, looks at the political background and reasons behind the EU’s revision of its public procurement directives. The... Find out more

"This report is on the European Commission's "better regulation" programme. The Commission is promising that scrapping or revising a number of directives will save businesses around 40 billion euros by reducing the "administrative formalities" they impose. In Better Regulation: a critical assessment... Find out more

Despite the meltdown caused by deregulation in the financial sector, the Barroso Commission continues to push Better Regulation as delivering light-touch, business-friendly lawmaking. This report explains the ins and outs of the Better Regulation agenda, and answers many of the questions raised by... Find out more