Question for Written Answer

Subject: Implementation of the ‘one in, one out’ principle

In the working methods of the European Commission presented in December 2019, President von der Leyen instructed the Commission to implement the ‘one in, one out’ principle for all upcoming legislation1.

The successful and aggressive implementation of such policies has contributed positively to economic growth and job creation by stemming the flow of regulation, red tape and bureaucratic burden, while increasing the chances that non-regulatory methods of achieving policy goals are considered234.

Considering the abovesaid facts, can the Commission:

1. confirm that the ‘one in, one out’ policy has been ‘applied coherently across the Commission services’, as promised by President von der Leyen?

2. provide an update on the state of play of the new instrument it promised to put in place to implement the ‘one in, one out’ principle for all upcoming legislation?

3. provide a full account of all legislation (regulations, directives, decisions and implementing decisions) enacted and repealed during the first year in office of the von der Leyen Commission5?

1 President of the European Commission, Communication from the President to the Commission on the Working Methods of the European Commission, European Commission, Brussels, 2019. 2 Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, One-in, One-out: Statement of New Regulation, HM Government, London, 2011. 3 According to research conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), such rules generated annual savings of tens of millions (Canada) or billions (the UK and Germany). Trnka, D. and Thuerer, Y., ‘One-In, X-Out: Regulatory offsetting in selected OECD countries’, OECD Regulatory Policy Working Papers, No 11, OECD, Paris, 2019, https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/67d71764-en.pdf 4 A more aggressive ‘One in, Two out’ approach eliminated USD 50.9 billion in overall regulatory costs across the US Government between 2017 and 2019 – Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Regulatory Reform under Executive Order 13771: Final Accounting for Fiscal Year 2019, Executive Office of the President, Washington, DC, 2019, https://www.reginfo.gov/public/pdf/eo13771/EO_13771_Final_Accounting_for_Fiscal_Year_2019.pdf 5 A search of the EUR-LEX database finds that 974 regulations, 80 directives, 1059 decisions and 366 implementing decisions were added during 2019.

PE661.170v01-00