Stress-testing of policy options using foresight scenarios :A pilot case

This report summarises a pilot process of stress-testing policy options against a set of reference foresight scenarios. The process was led by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and applied to a specific EU policy proposal on Standard Essential Patents. The goal of this report is to provide an example and serve as a guide for any future process of stress-testing policy options against foresight scenarios. A set of reference foresight scenarios on the global standing of the EU in 2040 was used to stress-test five policy options and the baseline option, in relation to the EU policy initiative on Standard Essential Patents. The process ran during the initial stage of the impact assessment process, but it was not an official part of it. The results of this pilot helped to understand which policy options are more or less robust and how they can be made more future-proof. The process also provided rich insights into what the challenges and opportunities of this approach are, and into how stress-testing can be further incorporated into EU policymaking.