Work in the OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was officially born on 30 September 1961 and the mission is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. 

OECD provides a forum in which governments can work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems and to understand what drives economic, social and environmental change.

OECD has over the years developed to the international organisation with the strongest impact on the development of regulatory simplification. The OECD give recommendations on regulatory quality and implementation which have been and remain normative for the member countries’ work on regulatory reform. OECD Ministers requested in 1995 that the OECD examine the significance, direction and means of reform in regulatory regimes in member countries. The 1995 Recommendations for Improving the Quality of Government Regulation were the first-ever international statement of regulatory principles common to member countries. Building on this fundamental text the OECD, in 1997, produced a Report to Ministers on Regulatory Reform. Its Recommendations for Regulatory Reform provided the basis for review of reform efforts in member countries carried out both in sectoral and policy areas. Following an intensive process conducted in policy committees and in the Group on Regulatory Policy, the Guiding Principles for Regulatory Quality and Performance were adopted by the OECD Council in April 2005.

The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) was created by the OECD Council on 22 October 2009 to assist member and non-member economies in building and strengthening their regulatory reform efforts. It is a platform to help countries adapt regulatory policies, tools and institutions, learning from each other’s experience. During 2011 the Regulatory Policy Committee is preparing the new Regulatory Principles to replace the Guiding Principles for Regulatory Quality and Performance adopted in 2005.

The OECD Reviews of Regulatory Reform form a series of country reviews carried out under the OECD’s Regulatory Reform Programme. The OECD has assessed the regulatory management policies of 23 member countries, as well as Brazil, China and Russia. Each country review follows a multi-disciplinary approach and is made up of a series of comprehensive reports on: the government’s capacity to manage regulatory reform; competition policy and enforcement and; policies for market openness. The Synthesis reports for each country study as well as the individual country background reports can be accessed by country or by subject.

In addition to the country reviews the EU 15 project assesses capacities for effective regulatory management across the EU. The project started in 2008 and was completed in 2010.