Regulatory Index of Serbia

At the end of 2012, NALED created an objective indicator of the quality of the business environment in our country - the Regulatory Index of Serbia (RIS), and since then, the quality of the regulatory environment has been monitored using this indicator. RIS is a quantitative, summary indicator of the transparency and quality of the legislative process, the promptness of the state in law enforcement, the predictability and competitiveness of the regulatory environment.

Information about regulations and changes in regulations is of crucial importance for economic entities, considering that they shape the rules of business on the market. The creation of a business environment stimulating for the development of the economy implies the fulfillment of several important prerequisites, among which the key ones are: predictability and stable economic policy without frequent and sudden changes and greater legal certainty, which is reflected in the consistent application of the law, efficient administration and transparent communication with state authorities. Precisely because of this, NALED formulated the Regulatory Index of Serbia - RIS with the aim of providing insight to both members and the general public into the manner and quality of the adoption and implementation of regulations in Serbia.

The RIS consists of six components, and each of them follows a certain phase of the adoption of the law:

1. The plan for amending and enacting laws, which should ensure the predictability of changes to the legal framework in the Republic of Serbia (Component 1);
2. Analyzes of the effects before the adoption of regulations (ex ante analyses), which contribute to the validity of decisions, that is, the adoption of regulations with the best ratio of costs and benefits (Component 2);
3. The quality of involvement of interested parties, which shows the level of transparency of the procedure for the preparation and adoption of laws (Component 3);
4. The method of implementation of the law, first of all the efficiency and timeliness of passing by-laws that enable the operational implementation of regulations (Component 4);
5. Openness of institutions during the implementation of the law, which shows whether and how open the institutions are to solving doubts regarding the law in their jurisdiction during the implementation of regulations (Component 5);
6. Monitoring the effects of the law, i.e. monitoring the regulatory burden imposed by the law and possible problems in implementation that may lead to a new change in regulations (Component 6).

The total value of RIS for the year 2023/24 is 55 out of a possible 100 points, representing a nearly unchanged result compared to the previous year when the index value was 46 points. However, the data are not fully comparable because there was a change in the methodology of collecting some components and their expansion. Detailed methodology can be found in the NALED publication database available at www.naled.rs.

Some of the key results of this year's report are:

• The components with the highest values in 2023 are Responsiveness of institutions (component 5) and Quality of preparation of regulations (component 2) with 78 and 63 points, respectively.
• The components with the lowest values in 2023 are Promptness in Law Enforcement (component 4) and Regulatory Burden (component 6) with 31 and 46 points respectively.
• The predictability of the adoption of regulations (component 1) in 2023 significantly increased the value, although still not enough to be evaluated positively.
• Unlike previous years, Involvement of the interested public in the preparation of regulations (component 3) is not among the components with the highest values, primarily due to the introduction of new indicators that monitor the inclusiveness and quality of the discussion with the economy and citizens in two key moments - during the creation of the draft law, and during the adoption of the law in the National Assembly.