The Danger of So-Called Regulatory ‘Gold-Plating’ in Transposition of EU Law – Lessons from Poland

Ukraine, just like Poland over thirteen years ago, is on its route to integration with the EU, which would also require a transposition of EU law into the domestic legal system. In fact, the experience of Poland and other Member States shows that transposition of EU law gives rise to several issues. One interesting aspect concerns so-called gold-plating – that is domestic legislation than goes beyond the requirements set forth in EU law. Usually, it results in a greater regulatory burden imposed on entrepreneurs. The paper discusses three examples of such gold-plating regulations in Polish law – being a consequence of implementation of the EU law. Generally speaking, gold-plating is a negative and unwelcome phenomenon. There exists extensive research that shows the cost of gold-plating for the Member States’ economies. Some of the Member States have introduced regulatory policies in order to avoid gold-plating. The analysis shows that there are several actions that need to be performed to restrict the incidence of gold-plating.