The first annual directory on good governance and regulation quality presents how to improve municipal regulations

The report, published by Fundación Democracia y Gobierno Local, highlights the importance of having a quality regulation to reach a good governance and administration. It shows how a good public management contributes to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals and a good institutional quality results in a greater economic richness.

“If our institutional quality, regarding the other countries worldwide, improved until reaching the same global position we hold in economic performance, this could result in an increase of our richness, in GDP, an annual 1% for fifteen years”, note the authors of the annual directory. A good regulation contributes to a more efficient use of public budget resources, it is importance to reach a fair competence in the economic field and have effective regulations.

In the annual directory, coordinated by the UB lecturer Òscar Capdeferro and co-led by the lecturer Manuel Villoria, the text mentions that the issue of good regulation has not been included until recently in the political and administrative agenda. It also talks about the necessary legislative modifications and necessary changes regarding how to manage the public field to improve the regulation in the local field, mainly because there are many legal sentences which verify poor practices in cases such as the taxi and VTC regulations, urban licenses, and some requirements in public hiring.

It also notes that although there are specific administrative units at a state and autonomic level, this does not happen in the local field. Also, it studies the specific case of the Guarantee of the Spanish Market Unity and it highlights that the town halls have had a reduced participation in the implementation of this regulation. It also analyses the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which recognizes the right to a good administration, and the effects ten years after having become a legally binding text.

The annual directory finishes with a series of specific recommendations such as the development of training activities for elected officials and local public employees, specially town hall secretaries. Moreover, it recommends a series of regulation changes and defends an increase in cooperation among the different degrees of normative production and accurate organizational designs to promote the improvement of the regulation.

The annual directory, with the collaboration of the Federació de Municipis de Catalunya and support of the National Commission of Markets and Competence, was previously developed at the UB with the organization of two Living Labs. These involved an activity carried out with a collaborative methodology to innovate using the collaboration of several actors, beyond the specifically academic field.