Delegated Acts: streamlining the scrutiny - a BusinessEurope position paper

Key recommendations

• The EU Council and the European Parliament should better define the scope and conditions of delegation of powers to the European Commission in basic legal acts, which would prevent uncertainties around which provisions qualify for being “essential” when drafting delegated acts
• The co-legislators should give much more consideration to realistic implementation timelines when delegated acts need to be prepared after adoption of the basic act
• The basic act provisions on delegated acts should not become a regular hostage of last-minute political deals in trilogue negotiations
• The Commission should increase the transparency and early involvement of stakeholders when preparing delegated acts, including when their content is prepared by the European agencies
• The co-legislators should significantly reinforce the scrutiny of delegated acts by dedicating sufficient resources to that end
• To aid the improvements in scrutiny, impact assessments must always be carried out on delegated acts with significant effects, which is rarely the case today
• Impact assessments of the basic act should also analyse the choice of delegation better, weighing different regulatory alternatives