OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 Regulatory Impact Assessment in Greece Dr. P.Karkatsoulis Policy Advisor to the Ministry of Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization, Professor at the National School of Public Administration

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February Several fragmented efforts on: –Simplification –Codification –Transposition –Law drafting Intensive discussion inside and outside Greece OECD report (2001) EU policy on Better Regulation (2002) The background of regulatory reform in Greece

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February The size of the norm flow European Union: EU-Aquis composed by Directives covers pages. Greece: 3430 Parliamentary laws in the last 30 years, 5 times more Presidential decrees authorized by the law and 63 times more ministerial decisions.

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February The main problems of the Greek regulatory system were identified as: –There are too many and very detailed regulations in force –Provisions on the same issues are interspersed to different regulations –The increasing production of regulations by the administration Main problems

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February Regulatory Inflation

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February Dispersed Horizontal Structure Ministry of Foreign Affairs –For notification of the transposed aquis Ministry of Economics –For the transposition of the aquis General Accounting Office –For the impact on state budget Ministry of Interior –For simplification and codification issues Central Committee for the preparation of legislation –For technical suggestions on bills Council of the State –Consulted for Presidential Decrees Parliament –Scientific Committees –Committees and Plenary

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February Do we know the reasons why does it happen? Some basic assumptions –The form of the state –The existing legislative culture –The welfare state –Unexpected social events/periods of fast social movements –International Organizations –State intervention to economic transactions

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February Crucial achievements One – stop – shops for citizens and businesses Sufficient infrastructure (e – government) Pool of experts

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February Lack of a regulatory reform strategy While the weaknesses of the legislative instrumentarium are well known, the measures taken were mostly conceived as ad hoc reactions. The new IAs (energy, telecom, competition) have been used as driving forces for the new era of better regulation.

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February The EU Better Regulation Mandelkern report –It describes a comprehensive overall approach to better regulation. –It recommends practices applicable to both national governments and the European Commission. –It also makes recommendations to the Institutions of the EU Commissions Action plan –It launched a series of measures to review the body of existing law. The European IA –It aims to improve the quality of the Commission's policy proposals in terms of their efficiency, effectiveness and coherency. –It identifies alternative policy options and their likely positive and negative impacts, with a particular focus on economic, environmental and social effects, in line with the EU Sustainable Development Strategy The DEBR network –The DEBR performs an advocacy role, promoting best practices and initiating new thinking. –It promotes the exchange of national practices –The DEBR is capable of adding value to the EU level debate by staging a dialogue about issues that are not on the official EU agenda yet.

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February The legal framework for regulatory reform Following the OECD recommendations (2001) and the EU priorities, Greece established an inter-ministerial Committee to elaborate a new framework for the improvement of regulation. The ad hoc inter-ministerial legislative Committee had to overcome a lot of obstacles, misunderstandings and peculiarities. The draft remained in “queue” more than two years, until…

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February ….The Prime Minister issued a circular “on the national regulatory policy and the quality and effectiveness of regulations”, on July The circular was addressed to: –Ministers –Deputy Ministers –The Secretary General of the Government –The Secretaries General of all Ministries –The Secretaries General of the Regions The legal framework for regulatory reform

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February –Identify the problem to which the proposed regulation is going to give a solution –Assess the impact of the regulation on the Economy (i.e. competitiveness, investment, market, administrative burdens imposed on SMEs etc…) Society (i.e. labour, gender mainstreaming, health, persons with disabilities …) The environment –Alternative options to regulation should be considered –Achieve a consensus through broad public participation The Prime Minister’s circular: The procedures of better law making

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February The Prime Minister’s circular: Structures MINISTRY I Regulatory Quality Assessment Unit REGION I... MINISTRY II Regulatory Quality Assessment Unit MINISTRY … Regulatory Quality Assessment Unit REGION II Regulatory Quality Assessment Unit REGION …... Supervised by the General Secretariat of the Government

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February Proportio- nality Necessity Legality Simplicity Accessibility Transparency The Prime Minister’s circular: Principles of better regulation

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February The Prime Minister’s circular Tools of better regulation: RIA According to the Prime Minister’s circular regulations should be checked against: Their impact on the economy Their impact on competitiveness The simplification of procedures Quality law drafting rules/Accessibility Codification Transposition

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February Multi – level government The criteria of better regulation should be implemented in the case of: –A new regulation –A regulation which is going to be simplified –A regulation which is going to be codified –A regulation which transposes an EU directive

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February The way forward Manual on the use of e – RIA has been elaborated Specific Action plans requested from each Ministry Ex – post Impact Assessment prepared for the end of 2007 All the Ministries have to have finished the RIA implementation project by the end of 2007

OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 OECD’s GfD in Arab countries Initiative Tunis February 2007 Thank you for your attention Dr. Panagiotis Karkatsoulis