Consultative Meeting on Better Regulation: Reviewing Recent Progress in the Western Balkans, EU, and OECD Countries, and Planning Next Steps to Enhance this Field Further
18 October 2023, Vienna, Austria
Civil servants from the Western Balkans, dealing with the Better Regulation Agenda, held fruitful meetings discussing recent developments as regards the implementation of impact assessment and public consultation across the region, sharing good practices and areas for improvements. They also highlighted the importance of regional exchange and strengthening bonds with the EU institutions.
Apart from screening the Western Balkans’ progress, particular focus was given on recent developments in the EU and OECD countries, which served to participants as inspiration for further improving their work.
Establishing a network of public servants dealing with Better Regulation to regularly exchange and co-design capacity building for the region’s advancement in this area is one of the conclusions from the meeting.
Since the beginning of the implementation of the current EC grant previous Working Group on Better Regulation was integrated into the newly established Policy Development and Coordination regional thematic group, which serves as the main framework through which the activities related to policy development and the alignment of policy-making and legal drafting with the EU Better Regulation agenda are realised.
The growing awareness in the administrations in the Region that the efficiency and quality of regulations affect economic performance has led to their more strategic approach to regulatory reform. In that regard, in 2018 ReSPA developed a Regional Study on Better Regulation and has formalized the Ministerial Document entitled “Western Balkans Recommendations on Public Participation” endorsed by Ministers in charge of public administration. Also, in 2021 ReSPA, published the so-called “Practical RIA package”, which serves the regional public administrations to improve their competencies and capacities in the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) domain.
At the end of 2022, an inclusive regional Executive learning programme on Better Regulation tools and methods was also implemented. The specific topics of the Better Regulation area were included and involved in almost all ReSPA activities devoted to broader area Policy Development and Coordination.
Nevertheless, particular aspects of checking the quality of RIA implementation, like concrete experiences with the utilisation of Practical RIA Package in ReSPA Members, challenges within the administrations regarding the public consultations processes etc., were not discussed separately. Therefore, this meeting served the heads of RIA control units in ReSPA members to define future activities in Better Regulation jointly.
