Reform Support Programme

Briefing 23-10-2018

Among the legislative proposals for the spending programmes of the MFF 2021-2027, the European Commission has proposed to establish a Reform Support Programme for structural reforms. The IA accompanying the proposal provides a good review of the baseline scenario, the problem to tackle and the objectives to achieve. However, it concentrates on the expected positive effects of the programme, rather than assessing thoroughly the impacts of alternative options against the baseline scenario like a standard IA. The presentation of the delivery mechanisms is mostly qualitative, with a couple of quantified references that could have been better explained and substantiated. The IA remains vague on the precise scope of the voluntary programme and several implementation details and implies that its impacts depend to a large extent on the implementation by the Member States, which makes an ex-ante assessment challenging.