According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Commission, impact assessments should be the rule, not the exception. In other words, impact assessment should not be a right but a binding habit of the legislator.
Gold-plating is a term used to characterize the process whereby the powers of an EU directive are extended when being transposed into the national laws of a member state. The Slovak republic is not an exception.
Low quality of law-making has so far been the result of disregard of law-making standards and requirements rather than a lack of them. A recent study from the LFMI shows that almost one in two pieces of legislation is passed without impact assessment.
On January 20, 2021, the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic approved an amendment to the Food Act proposed by the SPD, which implements an unprecedented anti-market measure in the form of food sales quotas into Czech legislation.
Within the framework of the “Polish Deal”, PiS is raising the tax burden on income from rental housing drastically and without a transition period. In this way, the government wants to slow down the growth of property prices and, at the same time, increase budget revenues. This is a wrong direction.
So far, the COVID-19 pandemic has had little effect on the German housing market. It has left barely a mark on real estate prices or rentals. But the pandemic is not over yet, and even if it was: the past months have triggered some developments that will transform our working world and are likely to have a considerable impact on the housing market in the long term.
On May 11, 2021, Lithuania celebrates The Day of Respect for the Taxpayers. On this occasion, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) invited everyone to thank all taxpayers for their contribution to the welfare of the country.
The European Commission has launched an initiative on the evaluation and revision of the general pharmaceutical legislation with an overall aim to ensure a future-proof and crisis-resistant regulatory system.
The Czech Chamber of Deputies’ decision to introduce a high quota for domestically produced food in large shops from 2022 also belongs in these ranks: especially in times of crisis like these, more self-sufficiency must be achieved in the long term.
The next five years will be crucial. Public finances should come out of huge deficits, and the lesson from the previous crisis is clear. Tax increases will never be temporary. Pulling the tax brake can serve as an additional “austerity” argument in the discussion on lowering the deficit.
