Concern about the Quality of EU Legislation: What Kind of Problem, by What Kind of Standards?

Abstract

Over the last decade the interest in the quality of EU legislative instruments has surged due to serious threats to the effectiveness of the legislation. This contribution makes an inventory of the policies and instruments that have been put into place to improve quality of legislation and assesses their character, orientation and effectiveness. Any appraisal of these policies, so the paper argues, is dependent on a perception of the basic functions attributed to EU legislative instruments and the standards derived from it. The paper concludes that the present policies and instruments for Better lawmaking do have the ability to promote the regulatory quality but not necessarily the overall legislative quality.

Keywords: Quality of legislation, EU legislation, better regulation, better law making, rule of law, standards for legislation, deregulation, red tape, simplification

JEL Classification: R38, H10, K10, K20