More inclusive European governance through impact assessments?

In this article, we present an overall picture of the inclusiveness of IA, based on data on over 800 IAs carried out by all DGs of the European Commission from 2003 to 2013. According to official guidelines, IAs can deliver a variety of goals, and we posit that each goal can be linked to a different inclusion strategy. Specifically, we consider that the goal of coordination requires the inclusion of Commission actors, the goal of collecting neutral expertise requires the involvement of working and expert groups, while pursuing input-legitimacy requires a large number of stakeholders as well as online consultation open to the general public to be part of the procedure. Our findings reveal that DGs tend to prioritise coordination over collection of expertise and input legitimacy and that experience in carrying out IAs favours a more participatory approach, meaning that the more DGs make use of IA the more they will tend to include stakeholders and to launch public consultation. On the whole, the analysis highlights the importance of learning to fully develop the potential of the ambitious EU IA regime.