Mainstreaming Inclusive Principles and Strategic Approaches in Regulatory Policy Evaluation: The Case of the EU and the Greek Central Government

Responding effectively to complex and multifaceted contemporary policy challenges, inextricably linked, inter alia, with the pandemic, economic, energy, food, climate crisis, necessitates the adoption, at EU and Member State level, of integrated, evidence-informed, complementary and forward-looking regulatory policies backed by comprehensive evaluation tools, processes and methods. It presupposes the appropriate adjustment and transformation of the institutional, regulatory, and evaluation governance of the EU and its Member States, by enriching it with new fundamental principles and holistic approaches that advance the effectiveness, responsiveness and quality of regulatory policies. This paper has two overriding objectives: On the one hand, to demonstrate the importance of mainstreaming a set of inclusive principles and strategic approaches into the process of designing, formulating and evaluating EU legislative interventions, with particular emphasis being placed on the core dimensions and aspects of: the integrated approach and principles of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the "Do No Significant Harm" principle, and the "strategic foresight" approach. On the other hand, to highlight how these principles and strategic approaches have been introduced and applied, from an evaluation perspective, into the institutional and policy-making framework of the Greek central government.