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The Commission systematically carries out Impact Assessments for new legislation. Impact assessments are assessments of the impact of legislative proposals in terms of economic, social and environmental impact.

The Commission adopted new guidelines for impact assessment in January 2009. These guidelines foresee consultations of sectoral social dialogue committees - i.e. the European social partners in the sector - on initiatives with social implications for a specific sector.

The guidelines stipulates that "each Sectoral social dialogue committee, for the sector of activity for which it is established, shall be consulted on developments at Community level having social implications".

Impact Assessments assessing the social impact of legislation have been carried out for some years now, but the quality has been questionable. Now social partners will be involved to ensure that their views are taken into account when Impact Assessments are carried out for specific legislative proposals.

This is also a potential opportunity to systematically discuss issues of financial services regulation with employers.

Encl. short briefing note