Futures in EU governance: Anticipatory governance, strategic foresight and EU Better Regulation

Abstract

Contemporary politics require a swift and responsive policy-making approach to respond to emergency situations quickly and to anticipate them in a strategic manner. Maintaining decision-making agility in times of urgency makes it necessary to think ahead of stress-impacting situations. To increase systemic resilience, policies must be designed in an adaptive way. Strategic options, futurity of policies and potential futures must be elaborated and kept in sight when developing policies. Anticipatory governance and strategic foresight activities are elements of such an adaptive governance mode. To transform decision-making in a future-oriented way, these forward-planning elements need to be institutionalised to support governance resilience. This article asks how anticipatory governance and strategic foresight are embedded within EU multilevel governance. It investigates the EU Better Regulation Agenda to understand how anticipatory governance already contributes to EU governance. Additionally, it discusses how the institutionalisation of strategic foresight can contribute to EU anticipatory governance.