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Impact Assessment in the European Union: Lessons from a Research Project* Claire A

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Impact Assessment in the European Union: Lessons from a Research Project* Claire A EJRR 1|2015 Symposium on Policy Evaluation in the EU 1 Impact Assessment in the European Union: Lessons from a Research Project* Claire A. Dunlop and Claudio M. Radaelli** In this article, we present some major lessons drawn from a recently completed research project. Our research dealt with ex-ante evaluation, mainly impact assessment (IA). We shed new light on research questions about the control of bureaucracy, the role of IA in decision- making, economics and policy learning, and the narrative dimension of appraisal. We iden- tify how our findings stand in relation to conventional arguments about these issues, and reflect on their normative implications. We finally reason on the possible extensions of our arguments to the wider field of policy evaluation, connecting IA and ex-post evaluation. In the late 1990s, the rare studies of ex-ante policy is in synch with the Organisation for Economic Co- evaluation found it difficult to report on any concrete operation and Development (OECD). The OECD has development within the European Commission out- recently adopted an integrated framework for policy side financial planning and the structural funds. Take evaluation5 where several concepts and even indica- for example Pelkmans, Labory, Majone1 who were tors developed in the practice of ex-ante assessment unable to report on the number of fiches d’impact are transferred to ex-post analysis, with the aim of (the instrument used at the time to appraise the like- encouraging a common evaluative approach to reg- ly effects of policy proposals of the Commission), ulation and legislation more generally. what they contained, and who was using them. But This reflects the politics of attention in regulatory today this topic has gained a stable place on the re- evaluation: in the 1990s, only a few Member States search agenda of social scientists, for example in po- were pushing a reluctant Commission to activate sys- litical science2 and law.3 As Smismans’ notes in the tematic initiatives for the integrated appraisal of EU introduction to this volume,4 nowadays research on legislation, be it ex-ante or ex-post. These years wit- ex-ante policy appraisal falls within the wider field nessed the emergence of the concepts of business im- of policy evaluation, broadly defined to cover the pact assessment, compliance cost measurement, and whole policy cycle – from ex-ante analysis to ex-post better law-making, but there was no integrated re- appraisal. On this core idea, the European Union (EU) sponse from the EU institutions.6 Radaelli reviewed * The article arises out of original research funded by the European Appraisal: Biofuels Policy in the UK”, 43 Policy Sciences (2010), Research Council (ERC) project Analysis of Learning in Regulatory pp. 343 et sqq.; Claire A Dunlop, Oliver Fritsch and Claudio M Governance (ALREG), see: http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/ Radaelli, “The Appraisal of Policy Appraisal – Learning About politics/research/centres/ceg/ (#230267). We thank Christie Smith Impact Assessment”, 149 Revue Française D'Administration for all her help in formatting the work and the editor of this Publique (2014), pp. 163 et sqq.; John Turnpenny, Måns Nilsson, special issue and two anonymous referees for their insightful Duncan Russel et al., “The policy and politics of policy appraisal: comments made on earlier drafts of the work. The usual dis- Emerging trends and new directions", 16 Journal of European claimer applies. Public Policy (2009), pp. 640 et sqq. ** Claire A. Dunlop, University of Exeter, UK and Claudio M. 3 Anne CM Meuwese and Stijn van Voorst, “Impact Assessment in Radaelli, University of Exeter, UK. Legal Studies”, in Claire A Dunlop and Claudio M Radaelli (eds.), Handbook of Regulatory Impact Assessment, (Cheltenham: 1 Jacques Pelkmans, Sandrine Labory S and Giandomenico Ma- Edward Elgar, forthcoming). jone, “Better EU regulatory quality: Assessing current initiatives and new proposals”, in Giampaolo Galli and Jacques Pelkmans 4 Stijn Smismans, “Introduction to this volume”, European Journal (eds.), Regulatory Reform and Competitiveness in Europe, Volume of Risk Regulation (2015), this issue. 1: Horizontal Issues (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2000), pp. 461 et 5 OECD, Framework for Regulatory Policy Evaluation, (Paris: OECD sqq. Publications, 2014); see Anne CM Meuwese, Michiel Scheltema and Lynn van der Velden, “The OECD Framework for Regulatory 2 Camilla Adelle, Andrew Jordan and John Turnpenny, “Proceeding Policy Evaluation: an initial assessment”, European Journal of Risk in Parallel or Drifting apart? A Systematic Review of Policy Ap- Regulation, this issue. praisal Research and Practices”, 30 Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy (2012), pp. 401 et sqq.; Claire A Dunlop, 6 Julie Froud, Rebecca Boden, Anthony Ogus et al., Controlling the “The Temporal Dimension of Knowledge and the Limits of Policy Regulators, (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1998). 2 Symposium on Policy Evaluation in the EU EJRR 1|2015 in 1999 the initiatives for ex-ante evaluation of poli- reader can find evidence and data therein – and con- cy proposals (excluding structural funds and finan- centrate on the conceptual lessons. In the remainder, cial planning) and concluded that the various pilot our main concern is the EU level, but when neces- initiatives with policy instruments had not produced sary we add observations on the situation is the Mem- an integrated template and a coherent instrumenta- ber States, since the two levels co-exist and interact. tion – much ado about nothing.7 In the conclusions we elaborate on the implications Now there is a full range of initiatives for policy of our lessons for a critical research agenda in this evaluation in the so-called smart regulation agenda field14 and for our wider theoretical understanding of the EU and in the Member States. This evaluation of the politics of bureaucracy, learning and diffusion turn has affected policy-makers’ understandings of of policy instruments. the nature of EU law and its role in larger architec- tures for integrating policy and law, as shown by Smismans.8 Even the language and the labels used I. What is impact assessment for? by policy-makers accompany this rise in attention – alongside the by-now traditional impact assessment 1. Control instrument, tool of bureaucratic of legislative and non-legislative proposals of the Eu- empowerment or just a symbol? ropean Commission, we see an emerging policy agen- da concerned with ex-post evaluation and post-im- At the outset, any appraisal of the experience with plementation review, including projects to re-fit Eu- IA and smart regulation in the EU has to start with ropean legislation to changing structural conditions9 a theoretical proposition about the rationale for pol- and carry out ex-post evaluations.10 The attention for icy adoption.15 This rationale lies in delegation the- the problems created by administrative obligations ory. The original intuition by McCubbins, Noll and has remained high since 2004, with several ‘wars’ on Weingast16 was that by saddling United States (US) red tape endorsed by successive EU presidencies, the Commission, and stakeholders.11 All this activity is supposed to connect with the more established tra- 7 Claudio M Radaelli, "Steering the Community regulatory system: the challenges ahead", 77 Public Administration (1999), pp. 855 dition of evaluation of expenditure programmes, to et sqq. create a coherent evaluation culture across EU insti- 8 Stijn Sismans, “From Harmonization to Co-ordination? EU Law in tutions – this, at least, is the stated aim of the Com- the Lisbon Governance Architecture", 18 Journal of European Public Policy (2011), pp. 504 et sqq. mission. 9 Commission Communication on the Regulatory fitness and In short, a neglected issue has become familiar ter- performance programme (REFIT): State of play and outlook, ritory for researchers and policy-makers. The year COM(2014)368. 2002 signals the moment when the Commission took 10 Commission Communication on Strengthening the foundations of Smart Regulation – improving evaluation, Communication, the commitment to use a single integrated template COM(2013)686. (Impact Assessment, IA) to evaluate new proposals 11 Paola Coletti, Evidence for Public Policy Design: How to Learn (beyond what was already done for expenditure pro- from Best Practice, (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2013). 12 Commission Communication on Impact assessment, grammes), to implement common standards for con- COM(2002)276; Commission Communication Towards a rein- sultation, and to articulate an action plan for better forced culture of consultation and dialogue. General principles 12 and minimum standards for consultation of interested parties by regulation. After almost fifteen years, researchers the Commission, COM(2002)704; Commission Communication have sufficient evidence to review the experience Action plan: Simplifying and improving the regulatory environ- ment, COM(2002)278. with ex-ante evaluation and IA in particular. We un- 13 Details available on the internet at http://socialsciences.exeter.ac dertake this task by drawing lessons from a four-year .uk/politics/research/centres/ceg/research/projects/alreg/. project on Analysis of Learning in Regulatory Gover- 14 See John Turnpenny, Claudio M Radaelli, Andrew Jordan et al., 13 "The policy and politics of policy appraisal: Emerging trends and nance, funded by the European Research Council. new directions", 16 Journal of European Public Policy (2009), In this contribution, we focus on some important
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