EPRS Scrutiny Toolbox

Scrutiny and oversight of the executive is an important part of the European Parliament’s work, as both set out in the Treaties and detailed in agreements between the EU institutions.

Working alongside other services, the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) provides specialist support to parliamentary committees and to the institution as a whole, to help enable scrutiny and oversight to be as effective as possible, throughout the whole policy cycle – both before legislation is adopted (ex ante) and after its adoption (ex post).

The Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value of EPRS provides a series of dedicated products and services in this field, including:

+va range of analytical tools to support the scrutiny process, notably in the form of rolling check-lists (please see below)
+ initial appraisals of the impact assessments which the European Commission attaches to its proposals and support for parliamentary committees in any further impact assessment work they wish to undertake
+ identifying the potential European added value of the policy initiatives they advocate and in making the case to the Commission that it should use its right of initiative for defined purposes
+ initial appraisals of how existing legislation has been working in practice, particularly when the updating of that legislation is included in the Commission’s Annual Work Programme
+ support for committees in undertaking detailed ‘Implementation Reports’, notably by providing ‘European Implementation Assessments’ on how specific legislation or policy is currently operating on the ground
+ monitoring of the delivery of the commitments made by the European Commission in all policy fields

Rolling Check-Lists – What are they?

With a view to ’empowering through knowledge’, the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) has recently compiled and is now issuing comprehensive rolling check-lists of important, but otherwise largely inaccessible, material relating to various aspects of the EU law-making and policy cycles. Designed to assist Members and parliamentary committees in the exercise of effective scrutiny and oversight of the executive, and updated on a regularly basis, these check-lists so far cover the following six horizontal topics:

+ review clauses in EU legislation
+ review clauses in EU international agreement
+ ex-post evaluation exercises in the European Commission
+ Court of Auditors’ Special Reports
+ follow-up to European Council conclusions
+ implementation of Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs) within EMU.

The first four of these check-lists are produced by the Ex-Post Evaluation Unit and the last two by the European Council Oversight Unit, both within the Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value of EPRS.