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Responsible Regulation’ instead of ‘Better Regulation’ – is the European Commission’s better regulation proposal fit for future?

Patrick ten Brink

elni Review 2022, pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.46850/elni.2022.001

The article provides a critical analysis of the European Commission’s ‘Communication on Better Regulation’ which was published on 29 April 2021. The article (and Communication) is set in the context of the now nearly two decades old ‘Better Regulation’ agenda that focused on “reducing regulatory burdens” on industry and the more recent commitment to a European Green Deal launched in 2019. The piece explores whether the ‘better regulation’ proposed in the Communication is really a step forward to actually better regulation. This leads to questioning whether the commitments in the Communication are not best seen as a continuation of the better regulation process where better regulation was interpreted to mean less regulation.

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