On last 13th of June, EJF had the pleasure of co-hosting the conference “Can we regulate for innovation and can we innovate in regulation?”, alongside Fipra, MedTech Europe, ABHI and Business at OECD. The conference brought valuable insights thanks to high-level speakers who shared their knowledge and a number of good practices in front of a full room.
One of the main takeaways of the event was the acknowledgment that today’s world is not only characterized by globalization (through new platforms and increased trade), greater connectivity (IoT) and digitalization (big data, machine learning). But also by changing social values. These changes mean that the “new normal” is described by more volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. In these times of profound disruption, we need to invest more and urgently in new governance. The goal is to improve our ways of regulating and of implementing laws. Having a more opened and learning culture will play a crucial part in this process.
Andrus Ansip, Commissioner for Digital Single Market and Vice-President of the European Commission, gave his last address as Commissioner before taking on his new position as Member of the European Parliament. Commissioner Ansip shared his view on “Digitalization as a new challenge in regulation” and reminded of being cautious before adopting new regulation in order to preserve the ecosystem of innovation. This applies especially for small firms and startups which could be particularly impacted by new legislations.
Prof. Christopher Hodges, from the Oxford University, also gave a keynote speech on Ethical Business Regulation, where he explained that businesses must approach business practices with a new mindset. For example, he mentioned the formerly new practices pushed forward by airlines in creating a new culture of sharing information. Without overlooking their failures and findings that can be drown from them. Similarly, regulators need to adopt a new mindset to create a trusted space to exchange, deliberate and discuss for policymaking.
Ruth Steinholtz, founder of AretéWork, reminded the audience that innovation does not come without failure. She also emphasized that each organization has its own set of values, with its own priorities. It is thus important to have leaders fully committed to thoughtfully identified ethical values within their companies, to set a strong and positive example. Employees must also be involved and engaged to become ambassadors of their companies’ values. Ultimately, she explained that better business practices is about being responsible before being compliant.
Some ways forward to achieve better regulation:
- In general, emphasis should be first on root cause analysis and trying other means of avoiding mistakes, rather than rushing immediately into regulation;
- This means that regulation must be driven by better information based on observation and analysis;
- Implementation of regulations must be smarter to avoid re-opening an entire piece of legislation when only a few adjustments need to be made;
- Regulations comprising too many details are limiting the scope of freedom for innovation: more thoughts should be given to principles and harmonization of regulation.
- More flexibility can be achieved also via co-regulation or self-regulation;
- Companies must be able to set their own values and be faithful to them: this will increase trust between them, regulators and consumers.
Agenda
Can we regulate for innovation and can we innovate in regulation
