New and REFIT initiatives in Commission Work Programme 2018

The Juncker Commission has been strategic and steadfast in its work, matter of fact in its communication. In the blog post Commission Work Programme 2018 we looked at the CWP 2018 communication, which offers a State of the Union 2017 (SOTEU) update, useful references and an overview of the coming initiatives:

Commission Work Programme 2018: An agenda for a more united, stronger and more democratic Europe; Strasbourg, 24.10.2017 COM(2017) 650 final

However, for this EU “Navigation App” for 2018 to serve practical purposes and offer detail, we have to make use of one or more of the five “add ons”, namely the annexes that followed the communication.

You can find all the documents through the web page 2018 Commission work programme - key documents, but mostly still only in English, French and German, the internal working languages of the European Commission.

I mention the Commission’s press release IP/17/4002 and the fact sheet MEMO/17/4003 because, for substance and terminology, they are the only documents already published in all the official EU languages.  

This blog post offers alternative links to the annexes in English through the legal portal Eur-Lex, as well as a short presentation of each annex.

New initiatives

The first CWP 2018 annex presents the planned new initiatives, neatly ordered according to the ten priorities of the Juncker Commission:

Annex to the CWP 2018 communication; Strasbourg, 24.10.2017 COM(2017) 650 final ANNEX 1

There is something under each priority. On six pages in all, the Commission presents 26 packages with future legislative proposals (mentioning the legal base) or non-legislative initiatives, indicating the planned quarter for publication.

Graphically, the ordinary legislative and political initiatives are presented on white, whereas grey matter offers the background for the future of Europe initiatives, to be launched “with a 2025 perspective”. The same colour scheme prevails in the Annex I infographic, which reduces the 26 packages to a one page view.

REFIT initiatives

If Annex 1 was about delivering on the Commission’s ten priorities, or thinking ahead to a better union by 2025 (future of Europe), the Regulatory Fitness and Performance (REFIT) programme is part of the Commission’s better regulation agenda. The proclaimed REFIT aim is for EU legislation to deliver results for citizens and businesses effectively, efficiently and at minimum cost. REFIT aims to “keep”  (make?) EU law simple, remove unnecessary burdens and adapt existing legislation without compromising on legislative objectives.

Thus, the four pages of REFIT proposals under the twelve headlines in the second CWP 2018 annex are complementary to the ones in the first annex:  

Annex to the CWP 2018 communication; Strasbourg, 24.10.2017 COM(2017) 650 final ANNEX 2

The Commission’s CWP 2018 web page offers links to an impressive amount of additional material about better regulation efforts, much of it from the same day the CWP 2018 was published: the fresh REFIT Scoreboard Summary 24 October 2017 (36 pages), the REFIT scoreboard web page with first vice-president Frans Timmermans, the new communication Completing the Better Regulation Agenda: Better solutions for better results COM(2017) 651 (14 pages) and the accompanying Commission Staff Working Document Overview of the Union's Efforts to Simplify and to Reduce Regulatory Burdens SWD(2017) 675 (45 pages).

As part of its better regulation agenda the Commission invites citizens and stakeholders to share their views: Have your say. The CWP 2018 web page offers a link to the ongoing evaluations and impact assessments on the Published initiatives page.  

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We look at the remaining annexes in a later blog post.

Ralf Grahn

State of the Union: openness and Democracy Package

After the latest State of the Union (SOTEU) 2017 blog posts looking at EU citizens, reform and future and Citizens’ Dialogues,  we recall that public opinion - despite the clunky Eurobarometer questions - seems to have been ahead of the EU27 heads of state or government, at least until the openings in the Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s SOTEU address SPEECH/17/3165 and the French president Emmanuel Macron’s Sorbonne speech (English summary) gave the leaders some impetus.

Openness (transparency)  

The European Commission has said very little about European level democracy, but at least in principle the Commission is open to input from citizens of the union. In addition to the Citizens’ Dialogues discussed earlier, we take note of the public consultations, even if most of the issues are of interest to specific business and consumer lobbies more than politically engaged EU citizens. On the State of the Union 2017 web page, we find the Commission’s button with an invitation to send our comments after the SOTEU address, although we do not know what, if anything, happens after the feedback  enters the black hole.

Through the State of the Union 2017 web page we can access a two-page factsheet on Better Regulation, with a focus on priorities offering European added value and improved enforcement. The leaflet is available in all the official EU languages. You can also consult my State of the Union blog post on better regulation and enforcement.

The SOTEU 2017 web page provides a link to a press release IP/17/3167 related to one aspect of transparency, namely a Code of Conduct for Members of the Commission. The press release - available in the official EU languages - leads us to the official document:

Draft Commission decision of 12.9.2017 on a Code of Conduct for the Members of the European Commission; Brussels, 12.9.2017 C(2017) 6200   

Democracy Package

The SOTEU 2017 web page offers us a link to the Commission’s so called Democracy Package IP/17/3187, with MEMO/17/3168, both available in 23 official EU languages. There is also a brief pastel coloured factsheet on the revision of the ECI Regulation.

One proposal wants to make the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) more user-friendly and the other revision wants to tighten the rules on funding for European political parties (Europarties) and their political foundations.

If you follow the link in the press release for the revision of the revision of the ECI Regulation, you find the materials - proposal, annex and Commission staff working document - plus an invitation to subscribe to get notifications and an invitation to provide feedback within eight weeks from publication. The same principles apply, if you follow the link to the amendment of the Regulation regarding European political parties and foundations.

The official documents comprise 161 pages in all, but let us post the details of the main proposals through Eur-Lex for future reference:

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European citizens’ initiative; Brussels, 13.9.2017 COM(2017) 482 final; procedure  2017/0220 (COD)

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU, Euratom) No. 1141/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council of 22 October 2014 on the statute and funding of European political parties and European political foundations; Brussels, 13.9.2017 COM(2017) 481 final; procedure 2017/0219 (COD)  

The Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) NGO - @LibertiesEU on Twitter - interviewed professor Alberto Alemanno - @alemannoEU -  about president Juncker’s SOTEU speech and these positive but modest Democracy Package steps towards strengthening democracy in the European Union.

Ralf Grahn

State of the Union: better regulation and enforcement

The latest updates on the  European Commission’s State of the Union 2017 web page are the new industrial policy strategy, press release IP/17/3185, cybersecurity, press release IP/17/3193, and the flow of non-personal data in the EU, press release IP/17/3190.

I have presented roughly half of the 108-page State of the Union 2017 brochure in earlier blog entries. Now we turn to better regulation and enforcement.

Better regulation

The substance of the section on better regulation is on a single text page (63), but it carries a lot of punch.

The Commission’s figures demonstrate that it has been serious about being big on big things and small on small things, which tallies with my experience of the strategic way the Juncker Commission works, beginning with the political guidelines, which said:

My agenda will focus on ten policy areas. My emphasis will be on concrete results in these ten areas. Beyond that, I will leave other policy areas to the Member States where they are more legitimate and better equipped to give effective policy responses at national, regional or local level, in line with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. I want a European Union that is bigger and more ambitious on big things, and smaller and more modest on small things.

I am just going to provide a few links to readers, who want to go beyond the SOTEU 2017 brochure.

Sorted under the Democratic change priority, the Better regulation webpage offers background information and links, although the page is in need of an update, for instance the Commission Work Programme (CWP) 2017, soon to be followed by the CWP 2018. (It would be helpful if the Commission priority pages and other web pages provided the date of the latest update.)

Here is an introduction to the Regulatory Fitness and Performance (REFIT) programme, as a part of the Commission’s better regulation agenda and integrated into the CWP process.

We remember the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making (13 April 2016); here an IIA explanation.

On 13 December 2016 the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission signed a Joint Declaration on the EU’s legislative priorities for 2017, and the Parliament’s Legislative train schedule - last updated to the end of June - keeps track of legislative proposals.

Here is an introduction to impact assessments in EU legislative processes and here to the Regulatory Scrutiny Board.  

Subsidiarity and Proportionality Task Force

From the state of the union address we remember president Juncker’s new opening:

Last but not least, I want our Union to have a stronger focus on things that matter, building on the work this Commission has already undertaken. We should not meddle in the everyday lives of European citizens by regulating every aspect. We should be big on the big things. We should not march in with a stream of new initiatives or seek ever growing competences. We should give back competences to Member States where it makes sense.

This is why this Commission has been big on big issues and small on the small ones, putting forward less than 25 new initiatives a year where previous Commissions proposed over 100. We have handed back powers where it makes more sense for national governments to deal with things. Thanks to the good work of Commissioner Vestager, we have delegated 90% of state aid decisions to the regional or local level.

To finish the work we started, I am setting up a Subsidiarity and Proportionality Task Force as of this month to take a very critical look at all policy areas to make sure we are only acting where the EU adds value. First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, who has a proven track record on better regulation, will head this Task Force. The Timmermans Task Force, which should include Members of this Parliament as well as Members of national Parliaments, should report back in a years’ time.  

Better enforcement

The European Union is, as president Juncker underlined, a community of law. Correct and timely transposition is crucial, as is effective application of EU law (page 66):

Better application of EU law is a priority of the Juncker Commission and a key part of the Better Regulation Agenda. The Commission restated its commitment to improving the application of EU law in a Communication of December 2016 which sets out a more strategic approach to its infringement policy. It announced that it would give priority to pursuing the most serious breaches of EU law affecting the interests of citizens and businesses. As of September 2017, 1,659 infringement cases have been opened by the Commission. This is a considerable increase from the previous years.

SOTEU brochure presentations   

Having come this far, we might as well remind ourselves what the remaining part of the State of the Union 2017 brochure promises to deal with:

The State of Public Opinion in the EU

Progress in the Economic Situation

Policy Implementation Report

The European Solidarity Corps: One Year on

Visits to national Parliaments

Citizens’ Dialogues

Letter on the Roadmap for a More United, Stronger and a More Democratic Union   

Future blog posts are going to look at these sections.

Ralf Grahn

What is the EU doing for growth and jobs?

The European Council has repeatedly endorsed and called for a Digital Single Market, as well as other growth reforms. This quote comes from the conclusions 9 December 2011 (EUCO 139/11; page 1, point 2):

Recalling the key priority areas for growth it identified in October 2011, in particular, the Single Market Act, the Digital Single Market and the reduction of overall regulatory burden for SMEs and microenterprises, the European Council stressed the need to swiftly adopt the measures with the most potential to boost growth and jobs. It therefore supports the principle of a fast-track programme and invites the Council and the European Parliament to give particular priority to the speedy examination of the proposals identified by the Commission, including in its Annual Growth Survey, as having substantial growth potential. It endorses the actions proposed by the Commission in its report on minimising regulatory burdens for SMEs.

In most EU member states the government coffers are empty and for some countries public borrowing (even refinancing) has become prohibitively expensive. Despite the glide into recession, there is scant hope for massive stimulus through state budgets.

Governments are mainly left with the opportunity to undertake qualitative growth reforms, in order to unleash the potential for a return to economic growth, prosperity and job creation. The sooner, the better, but becoming competitive often means breaking societal taboos in the very member states where the reforms have been lagging.

Without going into the substance, here is a compilation of the main EU level programmes to engender growth and new jobs.


Reforms for growth and jobs

Competitiveness is a key concept. For the convenience of readers, here are a few sources regarding proposals and developments to unleash growth potential in the European Union.


Single Market Act

The Single Market Act – twelve levers to boost growth and strengthen confidence – and the latest developments.


EU2020 and flagship initiatives

The Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, with seven flagship initiatives:

Digital Agenda for Europe, including the fresh Annual Progress Report 2011 (22 December 2011), where developments regarding the Pillar 1 aim ”A vibrant digital single market” are recorded on pages 2-6.

Innovation Union, including the report State of the Innovation Union 2011; Brussels, 2.12.2011 COM(2011) 849 final

Youth on the Move

A Resource-efficient Europe

An Industrial Policy for the Globalisation Era, including the monitoring report Industrial Policy: Reinforcing competitiveness; Brussels, 14.10.2011 COM(2011) 642 final, or the fuller version including SEC(2011) 1187. Also the European Competetiveness Report 2011.

An Agenda for New Skills and Jobs. Also the report Employment and Social Developments in Europe (15 December 2011), downloadable here.

European platform against poverty and social exclusion. Also the report Employment and Social Developments in Europe (15 December 2011), downloadable here.


Annual Growth Survey 2012

Annual Growth Survey 2012 VOL. 1/5; Brussels, 23.11.2011 COM(2011) 815 final

The four AGS Annexes Progress Report on Europe 2020 (Volume 2), Macro-economic Report (Volume 3), Draft Joint Employment Report (Volume 4) and Growth-friendly tax policies in Member States and better tax coordination in the EU (Volume 5), are downloadable here.


Smart Regulation

The communication Smart Regulation in the European Union, Brussels, 8.10.2010 COM(2010) 543 final, is a part of the Better Regulation strategy. The recent report Minimizing regulatory burden for SMEs - Adapting EU regulation to the needs of micro-enterprises, Brussels, 23.11.2011 COM(2011) 803 final, was endorsed by the European Council, as we saw above.




Ralf Grahn

How much EU law is there? Smart regulation and impact assessments

Quantity and quality are different things, but the European Commission offers an approximate answer to the question how many legal acts there are with European Union origin.

This detail is found in the Report from the Commission:



27th annual report on monitoring the application of EU law (2009); Brussels, 1.10.2010 COM(2010) 538 final (12 pages)



Quantity of EU regulation

The numbers won’t end discussions about how “intrusive” or expensive EU regulation is, or on the other hand how far away the more than 50 year old ex common market, now officially the internal market, is from the ideal of a seamlessly functioning single market.

However, even the detail about the number of legal acts on the EU statute book has some relevance. This is what the report tells us on page 2:

At the end of 2009, EU law comprised, apart from the rules of the Treaty, some 6140 regulations and just under 1820 directives in force throughout the 27 Member States.

Quality of EU regulation


The basic argument in favour of EU level regulation is that businesses have to contend with one set of red tape instead of 27, or 30 when we take the European Economic Area (EEA) into account.

There are external aspects as well. Internal market standards for a fairly rich EEA with about 506 million consumers set ‘de facto’ norms for businesses elsewhere. In short, if third country enterprises want to export to the EU, they have to achieve European product standards. In international trade negotiations the common commercial policy potentially gives the European Union clout way beyond what a member state could hope to achieve on its own.

Some of those who are wedded to ‘light touch regulation’ tend to forget that rules and standards are intended to protect people: life, health, safety at work, consumer protection. As an ideology, a race to the bottom is not exempt from dangers for the common good.

This still leaves open the question of the costs versus benefits of regulation. If we care for both businesses and wider societal effects, we have to search for answers in a more pragmatic and evidence-based manner than through pure ideology.

It is fairly easy to demonstrate the gross or even net contributions of member states to the budget of the European Union. It is more difficult to quantify the costs of EU regulation compared to the alternative, national norm-setting, or the savings for the national economies and businesses through joint regulation at continental level. - The alternative is not EU regulation or no regulation (and regulatory burden).

Anyone who proposes ‘freely cooperating, sovereign nation states’ as an alternative should study the common market as long as its progress was ruled by unanimity. Without supra-national decision-making there would be no real common market (even in the imperfect form of today).

The European Union is not totally deaf to criticism. “Better regulation” has long been one of those activities, which are little noticed by the wider public, but extremely important for both enterprises and EU citizens.



Smart regulation updates

“Smart regulation” is now the Commission’s preferred term for the “better regulation” agenda. The European Commission regularly reports on progress in this area.

For a quick overview, you can read the fresh press release from the Commission, available in 22 languages:



Smart regulation: ensuring that European laws benefit people and businesses; 8 October 2010 IP/10/1296



Impact assessments

The press release from the Commission followed on the heels of a report, where the Court of Auditors evaluated the impact assessment system. The Commission’s welcoming words can be found in another press release, also available in 22 languages:



Impact assessments improve the Commission's policy-making. Commission welcomes positive report by the European Court of Auditors; 28 September 2010 IP/10/1187

If you suspect the Commission of favourable spin, you may want to read the ECA’s own press release for comparison:



Press release 28 September 2010 ECA/10/19: Special report: Impact Assessments in the EU institutions: do they support decision-making?

Impact assessments are important challenges for national authorities, as well as for institutions and bodies at European level. If you find impact assessments worth deeper study, you can access the ECA Special report No 3/2010 (28 September 2010):



Impact assessments in the EU institutions: Do they support decision-making? (76 pages)

The ECA press release and the full report seem to be available in English, French and German.




Smart regulation communication



Those who want more on better or smart regulation can head towards the Commission’s well structured Better regulation web pages (although the latest documents have not always been added to the various pages).


Primary sources are better than secondary ones, so we set our course for the latest communication from the Commission.



Since the search among COM documents on Eur-Lex tells us that COM(2010) 543 is not available in English (=not posted), we have to be content with the English, French or German version available through the Key documents page under Better regulation. Here for the English language version of the Communication from the Commission:



Smart Regulation in the European Union; Brussels, 8.10.2010 COM(2010) 543 final (11 pages)


The Communication on smart regulation offers an updated view of efforts to improve the quality of regulation in and by the European Union. The document references make it a helpful source for those who want to get to grips with regulation policy at EU level in general, or delve into particular aspects.


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We have not reached a conclusive answer on the right amount of EU regulation, but we are offered the chance to become confused at a higher level.




Ralf Grahn


P.S. Grahnlaw welcomes comments relevant to the topic discussed in each blog post. However, the number of spam comments keeps skyrocketing. It is more difficult and time-consuming to eliminate them ‘ex post’ than to prevent them ‘ex ante’ (even this, a dreary chore). Here is the sad reason for comment moderation, so it may take a while before your valued facts and opinions appear.

It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we could and should promote interaction among Europeans across linguistic and national borders. We can link to blogs and other sources in foreign languages. We can share different viewpoints with our readers, perhaps explaining the gist of the arguments.



If you are a reader, check out Bloggingportal.eu. The multilingual blog aggregator helps you become better informed about the European Union and the Council of Europe, and it offers you a fun way to improve your language skills.

Euroblogs can invite comments in different languages; those we are able to read, or the ones we understand the essentials of by using machine translation (bad, but fast and improving; often better into English than into other languages).

Grahnlaw has adopted a multilingual comment policy:

I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.

European Union: Better regulation

On its road to an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, the European Union has as its task, by establishing a common market and an economic and monetary union and by implementing common policies or activities, to promote throughout the European Community a harmonious, balanced and sustainable development of economic activities, a high level of employment and of social protection, equality between men and women, sustainable and non-inflationary growth, a high degree of competitiveness and convergence of economic performance, a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment, the raising of the standard of living and quality of life, and economic and social cohesion and solidarity among Member States (Article 1 TEC).


Social market economy

Among the modernised aims of the European Union, in the Lisbon Treaty Article 3(3) TEU, we find “a highly competitive social market economy”:

“3. The Union shall establish an internal market. It shall work for the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. It shall promote scientific and technological advance.

It shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote social justice and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and protection of the rights of the child.

It shall promote economic, social and territorial cohesion, and solidarity among Member States.

It shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe's cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced.”


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Legislation and regulation

Legislation is an important instrument for the European Union promotes its aims, and the stream of Directives, Regulations and Decisions is impressive.

In principle, the objectives of the legislative acts are worthy, such as improved environmental standards, consumer protection, human safety, health and wellbeing.

While the legislation is often addressed to the member states, much of it targets businesses. Regulation leads to compliance costs for enterprises, and the combined cost of business regulation is too great to ignore at national and European level.

Much can be said for replacing different national rules by common norms for 27 EU member states (or 30 countries of the European Economic Area, EEA), but the economy in the internal market is not meant to be only “social”, but also “highly competitive”.

Given the importance of the European Union, both benefits and costs of business regulation need to be scrutinised carefully, because European level legislation affects about 500 million people.


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Better regulation

The European Commission pursues a Better Regulation strategy, with the following courses of action:



 Promoting the design and application of better regulation tools at the EU level, notably simplification, reduction of administrative burdens and impact assessment.
 Working more closely with Member States to ensure that better regulation principles are applied consistently throughout the EU by all regulators.
 Reinforcing the constructive dialogue between stakeholders and all regulators at the EU and national levels


The Commission’s own assessment of its agenda is the Communication Third strategic review of Better Regulation in the European Union (Brussels, 28.1.2009, COM(2009) 15 final).



The Communication presents efforts to cut “red tape” by scrapping obsolete legislation and codifying existing legal acts. The implications of proposed new laws are scrutinised through impact assessments, with new Impact assessment guidelines (since 15 January 2009; SEC(2009) 92).




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Open Europe

Open Europe’s publication Out of control? Measuring a decade of EU regulation was published in February 2009, which means that some of the questions it raises may have been addressed in the Communication (and accompanying documents) as well as the new Impact assessment guidelines.




Still, the publication raises valid points about regulatory costs at both national (UK) and European level. (It does not look at the benefits.)

Despite the efforts, the costs of regulation have continued to rise.

Administrative costs have been at the centre of attention, with the EU scrapping obsolete legislation and simplifying existing laws. The wider costs of compliance with regulation, fees and licenses as well as knock-on effects have been less well scrutinised.

Open Europe correctly underlines the importance of European level regulation, meaning that a purely domestic (UK) agenda is too limited in scope.


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New Commission

The newly elected European Parliament is starting its work and the legislative engine, the new Commission, will begin to set its priorities from the end of this year (1 November 2009).

Open Europe’s remarks and suggestions need to be taken seriously by the EU institutions, comparing them to the latest Communication and Impact assessment guidelines.

Although Open Europe dealt with national issues from a British perspective, all national governments could profit from many of the suggestions, both with regard to their contributions to Council work and to their domestic agendas on sensible regulation.

A level playing-field within the EU (EEA) is desirable, but far from enough. A highly competitive social market economy needs to be competitive in a global context as well.



Ralf Grahn