Simulation models play an increasing role in policy impact assessments to examine whether there is a need for EU action, assess the possible impacts of available legislative solutions and identify the most effective and efficient. The Competence Centre on Modelling (CC-MOD) develops and manages MIDAS to ensure such models are open to scrutiny by scientists, policymakers and the public, which is essential to establish trust in the European policymaking process.
The European Commission is committed to making policy decisions informed by sound, open and transparent evidence. This commitment is reflected in the EC Better Regulation (BR) policy, its main regulatory framework that concerns the development and review of laws and other EU policy instruments. As presented in the BR Agenda, policymaking should be based on transparency, use of evidence and involvement of citizens and stakeholders. The BR Guidelines require that all models used in European Commission impact assessments are documented in MIDAS.
MIDAS describes models used by the Commission in support of the policy cycle, and offers a platform where models, data, scientific publications and policy actions can be easily correlated, and where interactions and dependencies between models can be browsed and better understood.
The following video gives a short overview of MIDAS: