Hungary

Overview and recent developments

All primary and subordinate legislations are required to undergo a RIA. However, RIAs are not consulted on nor made publically available. In March 2019, Hungary updated an act from 2010 on law-making to establish new obligations for law-makers. It requires law-makers to consider the results of impact assessments when developing new laws so that they only propose laws that are necessary for achieving regulatory objectives. In addition, it requires that where possible, legislations are drafted in a way that result in simpler, faster and less costly procedures, reduce the number of legal obligations and administrative burdens, and prevent over-regulation and regulatory overlap.

Draft legislation with its statement of purpose is required to be made accessible to the public with the possibility to provide comments by email. However, consultation is not required in the early phases of the design of legislation. The general public can express their recommendations to modify or provide feedback on existing regulations by sending an email to the corresponding ministry. While ex post evaluation is required, the OECD has received no evidence that this is done in practice.

The Government Office is responsible for co-ordinating the different phases of preparation of a regulatory proposal, from the consultation with other administrations once a ministry has prepared a regulatory proposal and RIA to the meeting of the State Secretaries to the final government meeting. The Government Office can also propose reforms or modifications related to the RIA and ex post evaluation framework. It prepares an annual report on RIA based on feedback from each ministry, which is not publicly available. Within the Prime Minister’s Office, the State Secretary in charge of the territorial administration makes proposals for simplifying regulatory burdens on citizens and businesses. There is no oversight body in charge of quality improvements on RIAs or ex post reviews. Hungary would benefit from technical quality support for RIAs, ex post evaluations and consultations.

Overall Hungary would gain from improving transparency throughout the policy cycle. Stakeholders should be consulted at different stages of the policy cycle and relevant supporting legislative documents and impact assessments should be made available online to a wider public. Furthermore, the public should be informed in advance when consultations, RIA and ex post evaluations will take place. This would allow to further improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public policies and promote the accountability of the system.

Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance (iREG): Hungary, 2021

Notes: The more regulatory practices as advocated in the OECD Recommendation on Regulatory Policy and Governance a country has implemented, the higher its iREG score. The indicators on stakeholder engagement and RIA for primary laws only cover those initiated by the executive (74% of all primary laws in Hungary).

Source: Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance Surveys 2017 and 2021, http://oe.cd/ireg.

Requirements and use of regulatory management tools for EU-made laws: Hungary
The government facilitates the engagement of domestic stakeholders in the European Commission's consultation process ▲
Negotiation stage	Requirement for Member State to conduct stakeholder engagement
	Use of European Commission's stakeholder engagement results ■
	Requirement for Member State to conduct RIA
	Use of European Commission's impact assessment ■
	Use of European Commission's ex post evaluation results
Transposition stage	Requirement for Member State to conduct stakeholder engagement
	Use of European Commission's stakeholder engagement results ■
	Requirement for Member State to conduct RIA
	Use of European Commission's impact assessment ■
	Specific assessment of provisions added at national level beyond those in EU directive is conducted ■
	Use of European Commission's ex post evaluation results
Results of domestic ex post evaluations of EU directives/regulations shared with the European Commission ▲
For all EU directives/regulations/ ■ Always/ ▲ Yes
For major EU directives/regulations/ ■ Frequently
For some EU directives/regulations/ ■ Sometimes
Never/ ▲ No
Source: Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance (iREG) Survey 2021, http://oe.cd/ireg.