On the eve of the millennium, and in the face of dramatic developments in Europe, it seemed appropriate to identify the current status and trends of public participation in Western Europe. This survey of practitioners, managers, academics and informed observers has been carried out by fax and email. A similar survey was made across Canada in late 1995 and published the following spring (1). To keep this volunteer project at a manageable scale, I have not included Eastern or Central Europe; this region is covered in the research and publication by the Regional Environmental Center in Hungary (2). To ensure some level of validity and reliability, I have sought at least three responses from each country before synthesising the results for review by the contributors. While the dozen open-ended questions (see box) are demanding of respondents, I felt that a checklist of structured questions would not provide the scope, depth or quality of information which the former would generate. Of course, the price is a lower response rate. In the summaries which follow, I have kept the contributors language as much as possible.I have added the approximate population of each country since this may be relevant in considering the nature of its public participation activities. Despite continuing effort over a six month period, I regret that there have been no responses from Belgium or France and an insufficient number from Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. However, the Western European volume in the Doors to Democracy series published by the Regional Environmental Center in Hungary provides an alternative source of information, though it too omits France and Sweden; the perspective tends to be that of activists rather than practitioners (3). Thoughtful essays on the development of public participation and sustainable development in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Lithuania, Iceland, the Netherlands and the UK are also available (4). Since the agenda of the International Association for Impact Assessment is unable to accommodate a panel discussion of this paper, panel nominations have been omitted.
Conclusion This paper has presented an outline of the current status and trends of public participation in seven Western European countries, as seen by several contributors from each. A comparative summary is attached as an appendix. I look forward to further contributions from the countries not described above; the comments of participants at the IAIA meeting in Glasgow are also eagerly awaited. The executive summary of the pan-European assessment of current trends and practices in public participation and environmental matters by REC (3), notes that there is very limited participation in the preparation of laws and regulations. However, there is some participation in most Western countries in the preparation of policies, programs and plans. A significant number of countries involve the public in Strategic Environmental Assessment; in EIA, Western countries provide for the public review of documentation. Public participation in licensing and permitting is quite limited in most countries.
References
Acknowledgements I am most grateful to the following contributors whose views are summarised above: António Alho, Henk Becker, Inga Carlman, Saida Engström, Bert Enserink, Jorge Luis Felipe, John Fry, Ulla-Maija Laiho, Teppo Loikkanen, João Joanaz de Melo, Michelle Morris, Sibout Nooteboom, Sõren Norrby, Tadhg O'Mahoney, Jari Paldanius, Ortwin Renn, Maria do Rosário, Elke Schneider, Pedro Sirgado, Roger Sidaway, Conor Skehan, Clare Twigger-Ross, Job van den Berg, Maria Constança Vasconcelos, Pauli Wallenius, David Wilcox, Johan Woltjer, Horst Zillessen. This paper was prepared for the 19th annual conference of the International Association for Impact Assessment in Glasgow, Scotland, June 13 - 19, 1999. Desmond M. Connor is an applied sociologist-anthropologist (Ph.D., Cornell, 1963) with an international practice in public participation; he is also the president of Connor Development Services Ltd. of Victoria, B.C., Canada. Phone: 250-658-1323; fax: 250-658-8110; email: connor@connor.bc.ca; URL: www.connor.bc.ca
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