Risk Regulatory Policy and Risk Governance

Abstract

Although not all risks fall under the responsibility of public authorities, there is a need for risk regulation in cases where individuals have no effective means and powers to protect themselves, or no interest in preventing or reducing risks imposed on others. On the EU level, regulation of health, safety and environmental risks is mostly motivated by the need to harmonise rules in order to ensure the functioning of the internal market. Critics of EU “overregulation” often ignore the enormous simplification brought by such regulation compared to the alternative of a 28-Member States fragmented market. Formal requirements on quality and transparency of EU regulation are not new and both the Treaties and the European Court’s case law clarify that all measures must be motivated and that the Union must take into account the available scientific and technical data. Moreover, a good part of the harmonisation legislation is based on a regulatory approach that makes only essential safety requirements mandatory, leaving to industry and other interested parties to set up detailed (voluntary) standards. The European Commission has set a Better Regulation approach in order to ensure the quality of legislation, review and revise existing legislation and ensure transparency and the involvement of stakeholders and the public, across the entire life cycle of regulations. It of the utmost importance to put evidence and science at the core of the preparatory and evaluation process. However, regulation may be “science and evidence-based” only in the sense that evidence and science are of great importance to inform the decision-making process. Other factors play an essential part in the process, and the final outcome is determined by a dialectical, political appraisal and the democratic exercise of institutional power. In order to ensure the effectiveness and acceptance of regulatory measures, the government process must be framed within a broader governance approach, where technical assessment is complemented by a broader concern appraisal and decisions are designed in light of inputs coming from a participatory approach.