Next year, a new European Commission will take office. It will no doubt develop new policies in the field of better regulation as its predecessors have done as well. In 2015, the current Juncker Commission presented the better regulation for better results policy – the EU’s ‘Better Regulation’ agenda. Since then, the Commission published several policies as part of this agenda, inter alia, a policy on effective enforcement in December 2016. More recently, in October 2018, the Commission presented a policy on subsidiarity and proportionality in EU policymaking. With these policies the Commission has made important steps in improving legislative quality in the EU. One element is missing however: the link between legislation and legislative differentiation on the one hand and the effects thereof on enforcement on the other. This would be an important issue for the next Commission to take up as we will demonstrate here.
Author: Michael Hubner & Ton van den Brink
Michael Hübner (left) is a PhD Candidate at Utrecht University. His research focuses on legislative differentiation and the relationship with enforcement. He is a member of the Utrecht Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe (RENFORCE).
Ton van den Brink (right) is Associate Professor of EU Law at Utrecht University and is a member of RENFORCE as well.