Technical and legal instruments for reducing the «regulatory burden»: EU practice and prospects for improving national legislation

It is argued that the quality of legal regulation can be enhanced through legal and technical instruments that, by their nature, are capable of reducing the so-called “regulatory burden”. It has been established that the reduction of regulatory burden constitutes a key element of the strategic policy documents adopted by the European Commission, which considers it a major constraining factor for the development of an investment- and innovation-driven economy. In this regard, the European Commission has developed and incorporated into its regulatory toolbox a number of principles and approaches with significant potential for reducing “regulatory burden”. Particular instruments are examined in depth in this study. It has been found that, thanks to the “one in, one out” approach, the drafting of EU legal acts has become more efficient, ensuring the efficient allocation of budgetary resources and rationalizing compliance costs for businesses and other stakeholders affected by future regulation. It is substantiated that, to date, the “one in, one out” approach has not been sufficiently incorporated into domestic legislative drafting practice. Furthermore, based on a comparative legal analysis of the approaches to integrating the SME Test (M-Test) into the law-making instruments of the EU and Ukraine, significant discrepancies have been identified that reduce the effectiveness of the national model. Therefore, in order to fully utilize the potential of this legal and technical instrument, it is considered advisable to eliminate the identified shortcomings by introducing amendments to the current legislation of Ukraine.

technical and legal instruments; «regulatory burden»; legislative drafting; «one in, one out» approach; «SME Test»; EU law.