Partnership Results of the workshop

Country experience of the programming process Country experience: –Ministry and regional authorities have been included –as part of the SEA, –involvement of Ministry of Environment and local authorities –public meetings in the programming phase More or less the same process in Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria

Country experience of the programming process Complains about the possible environmental partners –weak participation in strategic process (but strong in protesting against constructions) –no mobilisation for important issues (as ours) –they don’t believe us –no comments on the plans because they don’t expect that their opinion will be taken serious

My conclusions They should have read the guidance on partnership Obviously all described mistakes have been made again Partnership was seen as useless duty, not as chance for improvement Environmental NGOs don’t play a role at all

Whom to blame Both sides No clear definition of the roles Public consultation is no partnership Partnership was no topic and no desire Programming phase is over, so what can be done from now on ?

Possible improvements Build confidence –on both sides Learn a common language –capacity building Provide proactive information –not in EU-jargon Appoint a missing link –and pay it from TA for formal and informal purpose