Note trasmesse dai Parlamenti rappresentati nel Gruppo di  lavoro

 AUSTRIA

 Austrian contribution for the Working Group on the quality of Legislation

 1. Exchange of information

1.1. EU-wide parliamentary network
The Austrian Parliamentary Administration set up a homepage providing useful information about the Austrian federal legislation. It allows access to all parliamentary documents and meetings required in the course of the legislative procedure. This network could be integrated into a wider European context and is available in its present scope under the web address: www.parlinkom.gv.at.

1.2. EU documents
The above-mentioned website of the Austrian Parliament also offers a database of EU documents concerning Austria (but also the other EU Member States). The documents scanned in by the Austrian Parliamentary Administration are at present, however, only accessible to federal government units in the framework of the so-called RIS network, an information system on Austrian legislation. Extending the network to the Community level would certainly benefit the quality of legislation in the EU Member States. Implementation of a similar documentation system could be considered for all EU Member States.

1.3. EULEGIS project
The EULEGIS network presented at the meeting of the Working Group in Cogne could serve as a basis for an EU-wide parliamentary network.

1.4. Electronic processing of the legislative procedure
A project on the electronic processing of the production of legal texts was launched in Austria in April 2000. In line with the project target, in the future there will be no hard copies of legal texts and, consequently, no printed government drafts, committee reports and other parliamentary documents in the course of the legislative procedure. Even at the present stage it is possible to retrieve government drafts, committee reports and federal official gazettes electronically. After a successful implementation of the electronic reform of the legislative procedure, the world-wide access to legal texts would ensure optimum transparency of the legislative procedure.

 2. Proposals for a protocol or memorandum requested by the Helsinki Conference  (1997)

2.1. Evaluation of bills

Austria looks back on several decades of positive experience with the evaluation of bills.
Every federal law is usually subject to a comprehensive evaluation procedure before it is presented for debate in Parliament. This means that a bill is submitted for evaluation to a number of federal, provincial and municipal bodies but also non-parliamentary institutions, chambers and local authorities. The proposals of these institutions are taken into account in the legislative procedure to the extent possible. These expert opinions are also stored in the electronic databases of the Parliamentary Administration. – Problems arise if time presses and deadlines for evaluation are excessively tight. Moreover, motions of Members of Parliament should also be subject to an evaluation procedure before adoption.

2.2. Appraisal of the consequences of laws

This concerns the appraisal of the consequential costs of legislation for the public sector, non-financial consequences for the public sector and administration, financial consequences for private legal subjects and non-financial costs for private legal subjects. Austria has already created some legal prerequisites that take account of the approach of assessing the consequential costs of legislation. Furthermore, several scientific studies on methods of appraising the consequences of laws are available in Austria as well as the German-speaking area. These methods should be harmonised at the European level.

2.3. Controlling

It is also necessary to create instruments for reviewing appraisals of the consequences of laws. For example the Austrian Federal Budget Law requires the bodies administering the budget, usually these are the so-called “Central Units”, to provide for resources for budgetary and personnel controlling. These provisions were introduced only a few years ago and it is impossible to generalise from the experience made with this instrument so far. Harmonisation of controlling methods should be aimed at also in this field.

2.4. Laws of temporary validity

An important contribution to reviewing the consequences of laws is the adoption of laws of temporary validity. Austria used this instrument for example when introducing new provisions on the combat of organised crime. The duty is imposed on the legislator to examine the effects of the law before expiry of its term of validity.

2.5 Repealing of obsolete legislation and re-promulgation of laws

The body of legislation of a state should be examined for validity and relevance on a regular basis.
In Austria obsolete legislation was repealed in so far as in the framework of a federal law the decision was taken that basically every law adopted before January 1st, 1946 will be annulled unless included in the list attached to the law.
Based on an Article of the Federal Constitution, laws may be re-promulgated by ordinance of the Federal Chancellor. This means that the version of a law in force is identified and re-promulgated in the federal official gazette (often this is done because the law was amended several times). Also this measure increases the clarity of legislation and facilitates access to legislation in force.

2.6 Additional proposals for improving the quality of legislation

- Efforts should be made to reduce the time pressure during legislative procedures to the extent possible and to incorporate the appropriate instruments in the Rules of Procedure.
- Increased consideration and inclusion of scientific expert knowledge could also contribute to improving legislation.
- The competence of Members of Parliament could be enhanced by the appropriate educational level and selection of support staff.
- Another objective is to reduce the profusion of laws. However, it has to be admitted that there is some correlation between the complexity of societal conditions and the complexity of norms.
- A group of Austrian scientists looked into the question whether the introduction of sanctions or punishment for the inadequate wording of legal texts into the legal system would increase the quality of laws (cf. Tomandl/Mühlbachler, Ein neuerer Weg zu besseren Gesetzen? ÖJZ 2000, 207). However, in the Austrian discussion this approach may not yet be considered fully developed.