Better law-making agreement

What is the better law-making agreement?
The better law-making agreement aims to improve the way the EU legislates and to ensure that EU legislation better serves citizens and businesses. It should make the EU legislative process more transparent, open to stakeholder input and easier to follow. It will also help assess the impact of EU law for small and medium-sized enterprises, local industry and ordinary citizens. It will introduce a new agreement between the EU institutions, designed to make cooperation between them smoother and clearer.

One of the main aims of the better law-making agreement, also known as 'better regulation' or 'smart regulation', is to ensure that EU policies and laws achieve their objectives at minimum cost and administrative burden. It is a way of working to ensure that political decisions are prepared in an open, transparent manner, informed by the best available evidence and backed by the comprehensive involvement of stakeholders. Better regulation covers the whole policy cycle - policy design and preparation, adoption, implementation, application, evaluation and revision. For each phase of this cycle, there will be specific principles, objectives, tools and procedures to make sure that the EU has the best regulation possible.

Why do we need it?
Understanding how a legislative proposal comes about at EU level and following its path through all the institutions until the moment it is transposed into national law is not an easy thing. The process is often complicated and can take a long time. At the same time, it's crucial to ensure the quality of regulation and to make sure it responds to the needs of the society and businesses. That is why the EU institutions are constantly reflecting on how to improve the way the European Union legislates. They also aim to enhance cooperation between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union to better serve EU citizens.

Better regulation is at the heart how the EU works, and makes an essential contribution to competitiveness, growth and jobs by simplifying laws and better tailoring them to companies and citizens.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Better regulation: 10 graphs to help you understand and act http://www.europeansources.info/record/better-regulation-10-graphs-to-help-you-understand-and-act/

ESO: Background information: State of the Union 2016: Commission presents results of Better Regulation approach http://www.europeansources.info/record/state-of-the-union-2016-commission-presents-results-of-better-regulation-approach/

ESO: Background information: Better law-making agreement adopted by the Council, March 2016 http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-better-law-making-agreement-adopted-by-the-council/

ESO: Background information: Better regulation: why and how http://www.europeansources.info/record/better-regulation-why-and-how/

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