Regulatory quality in Europe - Concepts, measures and policy processes

The European Union and its member states are investing in ambitious programmes for ‘better regulation’ and targets of regulatory quality. This book, available in paperback for the first time, lifts the veil of excessively optimistic propositions covering the whole better regulation agenda. It provides an innovative conceptual framework to handle the political complexity of regulatory governance. It approaches better regulation as an emerging public policy, with its own political context, actors, problems, rules of interaction, instruments, activities and impacts. Focusing on the key tools of impact assessment, consultation, simplification and access to legislation, the authors provide fresh empirical evidence on the progress made in the member states and in Brussels, drawing on an extensive research project and an original survey of directors of better regulation programmes in Europe. Radaelli and De Francesco show how indicators define, measure and appraise better regulation policy, linking measures to policy processes in which the stakeholders learn by monitoring. Although better regulation is a top priority for competitiveness in Europe and the legitimacy of EU policy, the level of commitment and the development of tools vary considerably.

Introduction 1. Appraising regulatory policy 2. Defining quality 3. How indicators perform: A review of the literature 4. Measuring the performance of better regulation policies: The cross-national experience 5. The results of the questionnaire 6. The state of play in the EU 7. Better regulation indicators 8. Conclusion Appendix 1: Questionnaire measuring regulatory quality Appendix 2: Set of indicators on the qualtiy of the process Appendix 3: Set of indicators for internal evaluation Appendix 4: Set of indicators for external evaluation Index