Foreword
Slovenia has implemented a broad set of regulatory reforms to support good law-making and reduce administrative burdens for businesses. The current better regulation agenda is a whole-of-government policy for regulatory management and includes guiding documents to help regulators put into practice a better regulation framework.
The OECD Review of Regulatory Policy in Slovenia assesses the development of these reforms so far, and takes a detailed look at how the reforms are put into practice. The review also contains a special chapter on setting goals and priorities with respect to regulation, in addition to reviewing the policy framework, institutions, and the use of regulatory policy tools.
The review finds that Slovenia has successfully put in place some of the essential tools of better regulation. For example, evaluation and stakeholder engagement are common practices, even if they do not always conform to prescribed guidelines. Slovenia has also implemented a number of useful tools for drafting regulations, including guidance on impact assessment and stakeholder consultations, as well as a new tool to measure regulatory compliance costs for small businesses called the SME Test. Challenges remain, however, to ensure that the tools are used effectively and receive the proper oversight. The review makes recommendations to address these particular challenges. For example, Slovenia would benefit from an institution with the authority and capacity to review impact assessments, as well as a renewed political commitment to better regulation. Taken together, the recommendations put forth here can help improve economic performance, social well-being, open and inclusive policy making, and trust in public institutions.
The review methodology draws on the decades of experience in better regulation reflected in the 2012 Recommendation of the OECD Council on Regulatory Policy and Governance, the first international instrument to address regulatory policy, management and governance as a whole-of-government activity. The Recommendation identifies the measures that governments can and should take to support better regulation. These measures are used as a baseline for assessing regulatory management capacity in Slovenia. The review also employs the 2014 OECD Best Practice Principles for Regulatory Policy: Regulatory Enforcement and Inspections, which addresses the design of effective compliance policies and institutions and the process of reforming inspection regimes to achieve policy objectives.
In October 2016, the Slovenian government provided data and information for the review through a detailed questionnaire. The review team also held interviews and meetings alongside capacity-building workshops in Ljubljana with officials and external stakeholders in December 2016, March 2017 and May 2017. The Slovenian authorities also provided feedback on early drafts of the review. Information presented in the review reflects the situation up until mid-2017.
The OECD Regulatory Policy Committee leads the programme on regulatory governance with the support of the Regulatory Policy Division of the OECD Public Governance Directorate. Regulatory policy country reviews are a key part of the Committee’s program. The Directorate’s mission is to help government at all levels design and implement strategic, evidence-based and innovative policies to strengthen public governance; respond effectively to diverse and disruptive economic, social and environmental challenges and deliver on government’s commitments to citizens. The goal of the programme is to support sustainable economic and social development through sound government frameworks that enable evidenced-based policy making.