Appraising the quality of the European Commission's impact assessments

Studie 18-12-2019

Based on a scoring exercise of 132 Commission Impact Assessments, adopted between July 2015 and December 2018, and their appraisal by the IMPA unit of the EPRS, this study provides a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of these IAs. While their overall average quality is considered satisfactory, the analysis finds considerable variation between different parts of an IA. In view of contributing to future improvements of the IA process and promoting the value of IAs to support transparent political decision-making, this study indicates the main structural shortcomings to be addressed.