Journal of European Public Policy

The politics of regulatory simplification in the European Union: actors, processes and outcomes

Over the past decades, the European Union (EU) has experienced substantial regulatory expansion. A growing literature has analysed its drivers, institutional foundations, and consequences (e.g. Radaelli 2007; Hurka et al. 2022; Loxbo & Pircher 2025; Brandsma et al. 2025; Steinebach et al. 2025). Yet, a striking feature of EU governance remains underexplored: regulatory expansion has consistently coexisted with repeated but largely unsuccessful attempts at simplification. Despite decades of simplification initiatives under the Better Regulation agenda, the overall regulatory stock and its complexity continue to grow. This special issue shifts the analytical focus from why rules expand to why they are so difficult to reduce. Most importantly, the special issue departs from the assumption that simplification is not merely a technocratic exercise but a deeply political process, shaped by distributional conflicts, competing normative visions, and strategic behaviour (Bunea & Ibenskas 2017; Radaelli 2023; Schmidt 2025). By analysing simplification as a contested and often hidden dimension of EU governance, this special issue brings together research on European integration, regulatory governance, political economy and policy complexity. We invite contributions that examine regulatory simplification in relation to deregulation, Better Regulation, policy accumulation and growth, and administrative burden.

In particular, we welcome contributions addressing three analytical dimensions:

(1) Actors: The Politics Behind Simplification

• Who promotes or resists simplification, and why?
• How do distributional conflicts and coalitions shape simplification efforts?
• How is simplification politicised across institutional and societal arenas?

(2) Processes: Simplification in Institutional Context

• How do simplification efforts unfold within EU institutions?
• Why do political commitments to simplification rarely translate into legislative change?
• What role do Better Regulation instruments (e.g. impact assessments, Regulatory Scrutiny Board, REFIT, omnibus packages) play in shaping simplification?

(3) Outcomes: What are the Effects of Simplification?

• Under what conditions does simplification lead to actual rule reduction?
• Under what conditions does simplification result in symbolic reform, or even an expansion of rules?
• How can the outcomes of simplification be measured systematically?

The special issue is open to research from different methodological traditions:

• Qualitative, interview-based, and process-tracing research that provides in-depth insights into the political dynamics underpinning regulatory governance
• Quantitative and computational approaches (e.g. text analysis, LLMs)
• Mixed-methods and theoretically informed empirical contributions

Importantly, we welcome submissions from scholars at all career stages, including early-career researchers.

References

Bunea, Adriana, and Raimondas Ibenskas. (2017). "Unveiling Patterns of Contestation over Better Regulation Reforms in the European Union." Public Administration 95(3): 589–604.

Brandsma, Gijs Jan, Jens Blom-Hansen, Floris van Hal, and Kody Moodley. (2025). “A Sentence-Based Approach to Measuring EU Regulatory Activity.” Journal of European Public Policy 0(0): 1–25, https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2025.2596122 

Hurka, Steffen, Maximilian Haag, and Constantin Kaplaner. (2022). “Policy Complexity in the European Union, 1993-Today: Introducing the EUPLEX Dataset.” Journal of European Public Policy 29(9): 1512–27.

Loxbo, Karl, and Brigitte Pircher. (2025). “Complexity Meets Flexibility: Unintended Differentiation in EU Public Procurement.” Journal of European Public Policy 32(11): 2714–40.

Radaelli, Claudio M. (2007). “Whither Better Regulation for the Lisbon Agenda?” Journal of European Public Policy 14(2): 190–207.

Radaelli, Claudio M. (2023). “Occupy the Semantic Space! Opening up the Language of Better Regulation.” Journal of European Public Policy 30(9): 1860–83.

Schmidt, Vivien A. (2025). “How Much Do Experts’ Ideas Matter for the European Union’s Political Agenda?” JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 63(S1): 123–30.

Steinebach, Yves, Xavier Fernández-i-Marín, Markus Hinterleitner, and Christoph Knill. (2025). “Towards ‘Better Deregulation’: From Crude Cost-Cutting to the Targeted Pruning of Policy Activities.” Journal of European Public Policy 0(0): 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2025.2548350