Op-Ed: “Better Regulation: Upgrading and Going Geopolitical” by Anne-Lise Sibony and Fabrizio Esposito

Regulating is the EU’s core business. Inevitably, however, businesses and states people alike tend to blame the EU for over-regulation or absurd requirements. The European Commission has long taken this criticism to heart and, early on in 2002, launched the first ‘fitness’ initiative. From then on, every new legislative proposal had to be accompanied by an ex-ante impact assessment. Retrospective evaluation was introduced in 2005. From the outset, the emphasis was clearly on cutting red tape. Unsurprisingly, it emerged that focusing single-mindedly on cost reduction was not an optimal strategy: less administrative costs do not automatically mean better regulation. This realisation took shape in 2012 and led to the REFIT programme, which