EU Policy Horizon Scan.

Which pending legislative and regulatory measures in the European Union would affect a named product class, at what stage of the procedure is each, and who is moving it?

A policy scan is bounded by instrument and stage. Each pending measure is listed once with its source, and the scan says where a stage could not be confirmed.

Stage in the procedure’s own terms. The scan records where each measure sits in the ordinary legislative procedure, in which the Commission proposes and Parliament and Council act as co-legislators, with up to three readings. It marks negotiation between the institutions as informal and does not present it as a formal stage.^{2European Parliament. Legislative powers: the ordinary legislative procedure (Commission proposal, Parliament and Council readings, conciliation and informal trilogue negotiations).}

Who is moving it. For each measure the scan names the institution holding the file and, where the register shows it, the organizations active on it. It does not infer an organization’s position from its membership.^{3European Union. Transparency Register: interest representatives who contact the EU institutions.}

Maturity as judgment. Each measure is labeled Established, Emerging or Weak signal, as analyst judgment, so a proposal in committee is not read as a measure about to apply.

The scan states the assumptions its boundary and its sources rest on, and the closing section says what they leave out. Examples for this subject:

• The product class falls inside the instruments the scan searched.
• The procedure page for each file is current on the date of the scan.
• Measures proposed by national governments are covered by a separate scan.

The decision practice behind the memo itself is on the template page.

Any measure whose stage could not be confirmed on the institution’s own page, any organization linked to a measure without a register entry, and any measure known only from a press report. Any term or position given without the document that states it and that document’s date.

1. Scope and boundary
2. How the scan was run
3. What is out there
4. How the field divides
5. What stands out
6. What this does not cover

1. [1] European Commission. Better Regulation: stakeholder consultations, online public consultations, calls for evidence and feedback on draft acts. Read. The page describes a call for evidence open for at least 4 weeks, a public consultation for legislative acts open for at least 12 weeks, and feedback on draft acts with no minimum period stated; it also lists implementation dialogues and reality checks. Each consultation states its own dates on its page.
2. [2] European Parliament. Legislative powers: the ordinary legislative procedure (Commission proposal, Parliament and Council readings, conciliation and informal trilogue negotiations). Read, to about 100,000 characters. The Commission usually proposes; Parliament and Council adopt jointly; Parliament and the Council each have a first reading, there are second readings, and a conciliation committee follows if they do not agree; trilogues are informal negotiations between the institutions.
3. [3] European Union. Transparency Register: interest representatives who contact the EU institutions. Read. The page says the register covers interest representatives who have direct contact with the EU institutions, that registration has been de facto mandatory since 2021, and that only registered stakeholders can access the institutions’ premises to meet Members, Commissioners and officials.

Links checked 12 October 2026

These are the sources the template drew on. None of their authors or issuers has reviewed it.