Benchmarking competitiveness checks used in selected EU impact assessments 2023-2024

Introduction

In 2023 the European Commission introduced mandatory competitiveness checks in impact assessments accompanying all of its legislative proposals. BusinessEurope has taken a look at selected competitiveness checks (see annex) to assess their quality1, as a pilot project. We analysed the competitiveness checks in impacts assessments of:

• Proposal amending the European Works Council Directive
• Regulation establishing an EU Talent Pool
• Proposal for a Regulation on combating late payment in commercial transactions
• Proposal amending the Combined Transport Directive

In summary, the results of the benchmarking show:

• European Works Council Directive: poor competitiveness check (insufficient assessment of the impacts on capacity to innovate and on international competitiveness with zero impact claimed)
• EU Talent Pool Regulation: good quality overall
• Late Payments Directive: average quality (insufficient assessment of impacts on cost and price competitiveness and on international competitiveness)
• Combined Transport Directive: average quality (insufficient assessment of the impact on international competitiveness with zero impact claimed)

BusinessEurope does not challenge the methodology and the four criteria used in competitiveness checks: i) cost and price competitiveness, ii) capacity to innovate, iii) international competitiveness, and iv) SME competitiveness. However, the quality of applying these criteria is still low. It is noteworthy that the recurrent flaws are related to assessment of impacts on a) international competitiveness and b) capacity to innovate. It appears likely that competitiveness checks are largely conducted in silos of the Commission services and that there is a lack of the link to or cooperation with other Directorate-Generals (DGs) relevant for assessment under the established criteria.