CSIL has contributed to the European Commission’s consultation on Better Regulation, drawing on its experience supporting impact assessments and evaluations across a wide range of EU policy initiatives.
The European Union has developed one of the most comprehensive better regulation frameworks worldwide. At the same time, the context in which EU legislation is prepared has changed significantly. Policy choices are increasingly shaped by geopolitical volatility, economic uncertainty, and fast-moving technological change. This places growing pressure on the legislative process to deliver timely responses — without weakening the evidence base that underpins them.
When speed starts to erode quality
In recent years, we have observed a steady reduction in the time allocated to impact assessments, alongside an expansion in analytical requirements. From a practical perspective, this combination is becoming difficult to sustain. While digital and AI-based tools can accelerate specific tasks, they cannot replace expert judgement, contextual understanding, or methodological oversight — all of which are essential for complex policy analysis.
Speed must never come at the expense of a strong evidence base, and our experience suggests that the current approach risks prioritising procedural completeness over analytical usefulness.
Moving beyond early number-crunching
A recurring challenge concerns the assessment of administrative costs. Impact assessments are often expected to deliver precise quantitative estimates at a stage when key elements of the legal text are not sufficiently mature. In practice, even small changes during negotiations between co-legislators can substantially alter these costs, limiting the reliability of early figures.
Rather than treating this as a technical shortcoming, our contribution argues for a more proportional and dynamic approach:
This does not mean downgrading the importance of administrative burdens, but rather assessing them at the point where analysis can genuinely inform decisions.
Foresight as a core analytical component
In a context of high uncertainty, major legislative initiatives require more than detailed cost–benefit accounting. Before analysing costs and benefits, the underlying foundations and logic of interventions must be firmly established. Problems, drivers, and measures should be stable and verified to minimise iterations and focus resources on the analyses that truly matter.
Conversely, more technical or narrowly scoped measures are better suited to granular quantification, where assumptions are clearer, and uncertainty is more contained.
Consultation that informs, not just complies.
Stakeholder consultation remains one of the strengths of the EU impact assessment system, but its effectiveness depends on design and timing. Overly complex questionnaires and rushed public consultations often generate large volumes of feedback with limited analytical value. Unnecessary bureaucratic jargon can act as a barrier, discouraging meaningful participation and reducing the usefulness of responses.
A layered approach — combining accessible surveys with targeted interviews and structured dialogue through representative organisations — is more likely to produce usable evidence, while avoiding consultation fatigue among stakeholders.
Using analytical resources where they matter most
Our submission also highlights the need to rethink how consultancy resources are deployed. Highly standardised reporting requirements and multiple draft iterations consume time without necessarily improving analysis. A more agile approach would allow effort to be redirected towards deeper assessment, clearer intervention logic, and more meaningful stakeholder engagement.
A proportional path forward
Better regulation should not frame speed and evidence as competing objectives. Analytical effort should instead be matched to the nature of the proposal, the level of uncertainty, and the stage of the policy process. This is the core principle behind CSIL’s contribution, reflecting lessons learned from applied research and evaluation work conducted in close collaboration with EU institutions and stakeholders.