In December 2008, the European Commission issued a Guidance paper setting out its enforcement priorities in applying Article 82 to abusive exclusionary conduct. In response, CEPS formed a Task Force of legal scholars, practicing attorneys and corporate counsel to debate and comment on this latest Guidance paper and to issue recommendations aimed at improving the Commission’s text and the interpretation of the rules it contains.

Governments throughout the world are requiring greater use of economic analysis as a way of informing policy decisions. This paper, provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of impact assessment in the European Union, using US assessments as a benchmark. We find that recent EU impact assessments include more economic information than they did in the past, although important items are still missing. We also provide evidence that the quality of EU impact assessment increases with the expected cost of a proposal.

The debate of the so-called “net neutrality” has been under the spotlight in the US for many years, whereas many believed it would not become an issue in Europe. However, over the past few months the need to revise the current regulatory framework to encourage investment in all-IP networks has led to greater attention for net neutrality and its consequences for investment and competition.

Last September the European Commission’s unveiled new proposals for energy-market liberalisation, which focused on ‘ownership unbundling’. Under such a regime, the business of operating gas pipelines or an electricity network is separated from the business of providing gas or generating power. The initiative immediately drew opposition from the highly vertically integrated energy incumbents.

In the EU25, some 23 million SMEs represent 99% of all enterprises, provide 75 million jobs and make a 55% contribution towards the creation of wealth: in addition, one third of employees and over two thirds of private-sector employees in Europe work in SMEs. Given their outstanding strategic importance, the European Commission has launched several policies to promote the development of SMEs, their access to finance and investment in R&D and innovation.

Policy-makers increasingly see impact assessment it as the philosopher’s stone that will enhance the quality of EU legislation in the years to come, leading Europe back onto the Lisbon track. But does the EU’s impact assessment model actually possess the virtues ascribed to it? This new book by Andrea Renda offers a scorecard analysis of the first 70 Extended Impact Assessments performed by the European Commission, and concludes that the procedure has only produced a sea of disappointment.

During the last ten years, the European Union has built experience in using impact assessment to appraise policy proposals. Most of the research and debates on this policy instrument have focused on whether the officials at the Commission have learned how to use impact assessment tools like problem definition, alternatives to traditional legislation, economic analysis, and techniques of valuation. Less is known about what the EU as a complex organisation has learned because of impact assessment.

Participation in CEPS Meetings is a benefit of membership. Non-members may be admitted for €50, paid in cash at registration or 50€ +VAT invoiced to them after participation in the meeting. An informal sandwich lunch will be served after the event, from 12.30 onwards.

Roundtable organised in cooperation with the European University Institute within the MEDIADEM project, funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Research Programme.
Click here to download the programme of the event.

Participation in this event is free of charge. A sandwich lunch will be served before the meeting, from 12.30 onwards.

Date: 13 May 2008
 
Panellists: James Elles, MEP and member of the Delegation for Relations with the US
Daniel Hamilton, Director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the School of Advanced International Studies, (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University
Fabio Pammolli, President, Center for the Economic Analysis of Competitiveness, Markets and Regulation
Francisco Gaztelu Mezquiriz, Member of the Cabinet of EU Commissioner Günter Verheugen

Prospectus (incl. registration form and agenda 1st meeting)

Meetings
Informal pre-Launch meeting: 18 April 2013
1st meeting 14 June 2013 - Draft Agenda