Rupprecht Consult presenting CIVITAS results at EESC conference in Brussels
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) organised a one day conference on 'Achieving the goals of the White Paper on Transport: how civil society can help with delivery' in Brussels, 7 December 2012. Rupprecht Consult presented practical experiences on participatory decision making in CIVITAS projects.
The new EU Transport White Paper requires swift implementation. So far, the lack of progress in EU transport policy has been partly due to the fact that there has been insufficient involvement of civil society in both policy-making and policy implementation, and any involvement there has been has not been adequately structured. The conference aimed to assess the weaknesses in current practice and proposed new means of getting the civil society on board. It provided insight into the forms that a truly cooperation-based decision-making process could take at different levels of governance (European, national and local). The conference addressed two main points:
- On what particular issues relating to the Transport White Paper is cooperation-based decision-making needed and likely to improve or facilitate the implementation of decisions?
- How should such cooperation-based decision-making between policy-makers at different levels and civil society be set up and implemented? What should be the role of civil society's organisations such as the European Economic and Social Committee?
Michael Cramer, Member of the European Parliament and speaker for the Greens in the committee on transport and tourism (TRAN), urged the European Commission to take action by involving the highly competent and motivated civil society in sustainable transport and mobility projects. Matthias Ruete, Director General of DG MOVE closed the conference by emphasising the need for an integrated vision which is far more challenging compared to the traditional modal perspective. Bernd Decker from Rupprecht Consult presented exisiting good practices on participatory decision making in CIVITAS projects and highlighted examples from Odense (DK), Gent (BE) and Brno (CZ).
Further Information
Marcel Braun
+49 221 6060 55 20
m.braun@rupprecht-consult.eu
- Files:
- CIVITAS_EESC_2012_decker_v3.pdf
