Better regulation and the social acquis: Is the REFIT fit for purpose?

The aim of this paper is to focus on a specific part of the Better Regulation procedures: the Regulatory Fitness and Performance programme (REFIT). Within the Better Regulation process, the REFIT programme is, more specifically, focussed on evaluating existing legislation. The REFIT programme began in 2010 when the European Commission announced that it would be reviewing EU legislation in selected policy fields through ‘fitness checks’ in order to keep current regulation ‘fit for purpose’. This included identifying ‘excessive regulatory burdens, overlaps, gaps, inconsistencies and/or obsolete measures which may have appeared over time. Pilot exercises began in 2010 in four areas: employment and social policy, environment, transport and industrial policy.’ In employment and social policy, the fitness check exercise was launched in the area of informing and consulting workers on the national level, with the evaluation of three Directives. The Commission then included Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in the REFIT Programme. The third area evaluated was the Written Statement Directive. The paper analyses the REFIT as applied to the social field, through an evaluation of the REFIT Programme in the three areas where fitness checks have already been carried out. Our main conclusion is that the REFIT Programme has certainly legitimised the European Commission’s lack of action and has fulfilled its social agenda. However, at the end of the evaluation programmes, the REFIT has not yet led to deregulation. On the contrary, some gaps have been identified which have led the Commission to begin a legislative review process