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BackMore consultations, impact assessments and quality standards
The Commission intends to carry out more so-called “Public Consultations” in future, where everybody can voice his or her opinion regarding its proposals. This shall no longer be confined to legislative proposals, but include also roadmaps, evaluations and so-called “delegated legal acts“, which so far have been enacted mainly to the exclusion of the public. Furthermore, the quality and frequency of impact assessments of proposed laws shall be improved and expanded respectively. Apart from economic aspects (keyword administrative burden), social and environmental effects shall also be included. The Commission has put forward a proposal to the co-legislators (Council and Parliament), which shall commit them to subject their amendments to such tests also. This is a planned interinstitutional undertaking, which all three bodies have to agree to. However, it is questionable whether such new hurdles legislation will now be faced with, will achieve the objective not only to enact better but also simpler laws.
Social Partnership retains special status; nevertheless there are critical points
The idea, to subject social partner agreements at European level, which according to Article 155 TFEU can be adopted as laws by the Council, to “classic” impact assessments and consultations, has not been implemented. This could have to do with the massive protests of national trade unions and the European Trade Union Confederation. The Commission acknowledges in the published text that due to the contractually secured special role of the social partners further consultations are not required.
However, it has to be seen as more problematic that the Commission wants to hold on to its “Think Small First” principle. “Whenever possible and sensible less stringent rules” shall be applied to small and medium-size enterprises. Basically, this also includes employee protection rights. AK and trade unions have long rejected the idea that employees working in smaller companies should rely on fewer protective provisions.
Apart from that, the Commission wants to achieve that Member States when implementing EU Directives, will in future forego so-called “gold plating”. This means that national states adopt additional provisions, which go beyond the minimum standards of EU laws. The text reads that “This may enhance the benefits but can also add unnecessary costs for businesses and public authorities which are mistakenly associated with EU legislation“. In view of the in most cases higher Austrian standards regarding labour law and consumer protection, one has to ask the question whether the cost of such regelation are also regarded as “unnecessary”.
AK and ÖGB - founder members of “Better Regulation Watchdog”
In cooperation with partners, among them BEUC (European Consumer Organisation) and UNI Europe (European trade union federation for services and communication), ÖGB and AK have set up a network to monitor the activities within the scope of the Better Regulation Initiative (“Watchdog”). This has already proven successful during the preliminary stages as it was possible to quickly exchange “leaked” documents and to send statements to relevant stakeholders. Due to the fact that Better Regulation is a “living” initiative, it can be expected that the Watchdog will also be required in future. Hence, laws shall be continuously assessed with regard to their “suitability” within the scope of the REFIT Programme. In doing so, the platform will form a counterbalance to the dominant private-enterprise influence and pay particular attention to ensure that alleged optimisation measures of the Commission are not taken at the expense of the citizens.
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