Regulatory Learning

 

The EC has issued a working document as “Guidance on Regulatory Sandboxes, Testbeds, and Living Labs in the EU, with a focus section on energy”, with the main title “Regulatory Learning in the EU”

The document is based on existing materials, including ISGAN outcomes. It deals with and distinguishes Sandboxes, Testbeds, and Living Labs as experimentation tools with different main focuses, thus helping to clarify terminologies and sharpen communication.

What are the key elements of Regulatory Sandboxes? · Start with formulating a hypothesis of what to be tested · Innovation- or policy orientation are the two schemes – bottom-up & bottom-up · Productive interaction of regulatory authorities and innovators is highlighted · Sandboxes and Living-labs might be combined, as the latter focuses more on societal dimensions

What are the main conclusions in the document? The document highlights Regulatory Learning (which is even the main title) as the main focus of regulatory experimenting and hereby focuses on Regulatory Sandboxes.

The European Union promotes the use of regulatory experimentation including through the Net-zero Industry Act and the Artificial Intelligence Act and therein also will provide learning process platforms.

The identified lack of evaluations of regulatory sandbox tools and programmes is calling for developing an evaluation concept. This would become an important step of the policy learning process.

[Source: European Commission. ‘Regulatory Learning in the EU - Guidance on Regulatory Sandboxes, Testbeds, and Living Labs in the EU, with a Focus Section on Energy’. European Commission: Commission Staff Working Document {SWD(2023) 277 final, 25 July 2023. https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-12199-2023-INIT/en/pdf.]