Action Plan on Building a Capital Markets Union - Prospectus Regulation: Initial Appraisal of a European Commission Impact Assessment

Briefing 25-02-2016

Overall, this appraisal considers whether the quality of research and analysis presented in the Commission’s IA is fit for purpose – that is to say, whether the IA serves what should be one of its fundamental aims, which is to facilitate better-informed decision-making throughout the legislative process.After an initial screening, it concludes that the Impact Assessment does indeed provide some essential elements to assist decision-makers in understanding the rationale of the choices made by the Commission. However, it has a number of weaknesses which somewhat compromise its quality. Firstly, there seems to be a mismatch between the intended broad legislative overhaul, repealing the existing Directive and its Implementing Regulation, and the deliberately targeted analysis of the IA, which - focusing largely on six important issues - is bound to leave some other areas unexplored. Secondly, the Commission's decision not to carry out a fully-fledged evaluation is debatable and leaves some gaps in the analysis. While acknowledging the extreme complexity of the subject matter, a wider selection of options than the one presented in the IA might reasonably have been expected. Finally, some impacts, such as the anticipated effects on main groups of Member States, impacts on employment and on third countries, could have been better developed.