European Council Adopts Conclusions on Sandboxes as Regulatory Tools
The European Council adopted a set of conclusions on the role of regulatory sandboxes and experimentation clauses in an innovation-friendly, future-proof, sustainable, and resilient EU regulatory framework. The Council calls on EC calls on EC to present the findings of this evaluation in the first half of 2021, followed by practical recommendations for the possible future use of regulatory sandboxes and experimentation clauses at EU level in the second half of 2021.
Regulatory sandboxes are defined as concrete frameworks which, by providing a structured context for experimentation, enable, where appropriate in a real-world environment, the testing of innovative technologies, products, services, or approaches for a limited time and in a limited part of a sector or area under regulatory supervision while ensuring that appropriate safeguards are in place. Experimentation clauses, often the legal basis for regulatory sandboxes, are defined as legal provisions that enable the authorities tasked with implementing and enforcing the legislation to exercise on a case-by-case basis a degree of flexibility in relation to testing innovative technologies, products, services or approaches. In these conclusions, the Council affirms that regulatory sandboxes can offer significant opportunities, particularly to innovate and grow for all businesses, especially small and medium enterprises, including micro-enterprises, as well as startups, in industry, services, and other sectors. The Council, therefore, encourages EC to continue considering the use of experimentation clauses on a case-by-case basis when drafting and reviewing legislation. It also encourages EC to evaluate the use of experimentation clauses in ex-post evaluations and fitness checks on the basis of an exchange of information with member states.
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Keywords: Europe, EU, Banking, Insurance, Securities, Regulatory Sandbox, Experimentation Clauses, Fintech, Regtech, Suptech, European Council
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