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Reform Support
Supporting reforms to reinforce efficient and high quality public administrations

Supporting reforms to reinforce efficient and high quality public administrations

Funding Programme
Technical Support Instrument (TSI)
Year
2021

Identifying strategies for the implementation of digital-ready legislation

The Commission is supporting Austria in the strategy for a future legislation in a way that is easily manageable and enables digital administration. This would consider digitization aspects such as digital communication, potential later automation, data use, and the use of public IT infrastructure. 

Context 

Austrian citizens and companies are facing legislation that is overly complicated, which includes numerous exceptions, vague terms and many procedural requirements that may prevent an efficient and digital public administration. 
The legislative procedure in Austria is designed in such a way that the automation potential of the subject of regulation as well as the reality of all-encompassing digitalisation is ignored. 
The need for drafting future legislation in a way that is easily manageable and enables digital administration has been identified. This would consider digitization aspects such as digital communication, potential later automation, data use, and the use of public IT infrastructure. 

Support delivered  

The support should be crystalized in the creation of the following key outputs: 

  1. Conduct an analysis of the current Austrian legislative process covering all stages (including internal consultation among co-competent ministries - drafting - external/public consultation - publication - amendments to existing legislation, etc.). 
  2. Conduct bilateral meetings/workshops to 1) identify different methodological, legislative and organisational approaches that have already been taken in other EU member states and 2) to identify their shortcomings and 3) identify potential room for improvement which should include the review of the legislative process of other EU member states (in particular Denmark), covering all stages of the process, from consultation to publication of new laws and a review of the codification process. 
  3. Conduct a comparative analysis to identify derivations from the outcome of the above mentioned meetings/workshops with the Austrian legislation landscape and related planned initiatives. 
  4. Conduct a feasibility study for the federal level to identify the need for action within the Austrian legislation framework and to establish how the conclusions of measures 1 and 2 can satisfy this need. 
  5. Develop recommendations for the federal level: to transfer the analysis results into concrete measures with an implementation roadmap including the incorporation of experts, and conducting impact assessments to make sure there are no digital barriers. 
  6. Writing the final report: so that the project results can be disseminated with international stakeholders and national decision makers. 

Expected results 

The main result of this support request is to set the path in establishing a digital-ready legislation that supports the further digitalization of Austrian businesses and public services. This approach should save a considerable amount of additional resources during the implementation of the legislation and can also eliminate translation and interpretation errors in case the legislation results in an automated or (partially) automated process.