Aalborg Universitet Science and Technology Policy Jamison, Andrew

Aalborg Universitet

Science and technology policy

Jamison, Andrew

Publication date: 2004

Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record

Link to publication from Aalborg University

Citation for published version (APA): Jamison, A. (Ed.) (2004). Science and technology policy. Aalborg Universitetsforlag. Research report No. 3

General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.

? Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. ? You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain ? You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.

Downloaded from vbn.aau.dk on: September 30, 2021

Research Report 3 2004

THEME: Science and technology policy

Colophon

June 2004 ISBN 87-91404-06-1 ISBN 87-91404-08-8 (electronic) ISSN 1603-9882 © Authors

Publisher:

Division of Technology, Environment and Society Department of Development and Planning Aalborg University Fibigerstraede 13 Denmark-9220 Aalborg Oest http://www.plan.aau.dk

Scientific advisory board:

Professor Per Christensen Professor Frede Hvelplund Professor Andrew Jamison Professor Anette Kolmos Professor Arne Remmen Librarian Kirsten Skou Hansen

Responsible:

Andrew Jamison

Print:

Centertryk, Aalborg University

Paper:

Printed on 100% recycled Cyklus paper

Table of contents

PREFACE

ARTICLES

Andrew Jamison and Terkel Møhl Public accountability procedures in Denmark: initial profile …………………………………………7

Jesper Lassen Genetically modified foods …………………………………………………………………………….31

Karsten Bruun Hansen and Andrew Jamison Regional/local transport policy: the Ørestad/Metro project ………………………………………...55

Karsten Bruun Hansen and Andrew Jamison Waste management …………………………………………………………………………………….73

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Preface

This report presents the Danish contribution to the EU-funded project, Analysing Public Account- ability Procedures in Europe, which was carried out between 2001 and 2004, coordinated by Simon Joss at the Center for the Study of Democracy at Westminster University in London, UK.

The project has aimed to contrast the ways in which public accountability is practiced in different European contexts, both at a general, or national level, and within specific sectors, or policy areas. The ambition has been both scientific, in terms of improving the understanding of public accountability, and advisory, in terms of providing certain advice for policy-makers and interested parties at the European level, as well as within the participating countries. We hope that the dis- semination of the Danish contribution in this report can be of interest for both scientific students of public accountability, as well as practitioners within various Danish contexts.

The project was initiated in 2001, and consisted of three main parts, or work-packages: initial pro- files, case studies and comparative analysis. There were seven partners; in addition to Denmark and the United Kingdom, there were project teams in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Lat- via, and Portugal.

The first chapter of this report is the Danish initial profile and was written by the project partner, Andrew Jamison, with the assistance of Terkel Møhl. The other chapters present the Danish case studies, which were carried out by Jesper Lassen (genetically modified food) and Karsten Bruun Hansen (waste treatment and local transport). Andrew Jamison assisted Hansen in the preparation of his reports.

The final phase of the project was comparative and involves a number of cross-country analyses that have been jointly authored among the project teams. It is anticipated that the results will be published in book form in the near future.

As Danish partner in the project, I would like to thank the members of the Danish team for their efforts and the European Union for its financial support.

Aalborg, June 2004

Andrew Jamison

Public accountability procedures in Den- mark: initial profile

By Andrew Jamison and Terkel Møhl ideologies, separate organizational forms and separate political parties came into being in the course of industrialization, and the two political cultures have shared power through most of the past 100 years through arrange- Summary ments of consensus-making and compromise. As a society, Denmark has also been 1. The recent change in government in Den- characterized by a strong interest in forming mark has brought about a shift in what might associations, and in conducting social and be termed the regime of public accountability political experiments. procedures. The strong interest in such matters as public participation and so-called 4. Both the legal system and the political sys- green accounts that was so prevalent in the tem are marked by tendencies toward decen- 1990s has given way to a regime of public tralization and allocation of authority to the accountability procedures that emphasize fis- local level. In comparison to other countries, cal accounting. local activities play a significant role in public accountability procedures. There is little for- 2. The words public accountability do not mal separation between the government and translate directly into the Danish language, the parliament, or, for that matter, between but tend to be thought of in terms of democ- the legal and political systems, and there is a ratic control and democratic legitimacy. Five comparatively strong political influence within dimensions of public accountability have the private sector and the media. The strong been distinguished in the Danish context - role played in decision-making by informal legal, fiscal, democratic, performance, ethical consultations among interest groups and by - that we combine here into a concept of re- negotiated settlements among different con- gimes, where emphasis is given to one or stituencies can be considered an outgrowth more dimensions over the others. There are of what has been referred to as a “corporatist” also different types of insitutionalized proce- form of governance that Denmark shares with dures for public accountability within the dif- the other Nordic countries. ferent systems (legal, political, economic), as well as more dynamic processes of what 5. Three different regimes of public account- might be termed regime-formation, whereby ability procedures can be identified over the shifts in emphasis among the different proce- past 30 years. In the 1970s and 1980s there dures take place developed a consensual regime, by which there was an overriding attempt to balance 3. Danish public accountability procedures different interests by means of compromise build on an historical experience, by which and negotiation, which led to a number of two fundamentally different political cultures new fora for decision-making, technology as- were established, one based in the country- sessment, and public participation. In the side and one based in the cities. Separate 1990s, under the social democratic led gov-

ernment, there was what we term a the cities (and, in particular, in the capital of “greening” of accountability, with a number of Copenhagen) and one that is based in the new procedures being instituted in order to countryside. While the life-worlds of public account for the environmental implications of administration and industrial activity provided various decisions. It is this regime that is in the basis for a cosmopolitan public sphere to the process of being replaced by a neo-liberal become consolidated in Copenhagen in the regime, by which fiscal accounting is given course of the 19th and 20th centuries, the precedence over all other kinds of public ac- life-worlds of agriculture and food-processing countability procedures. provided the basis for a very different kind of public sphere - and collective identity - to develop in the countryside. Introduction: Two rather distinct sets of institutional frame- a shift in regimes works were established, both in the political realm, but also in regard to science and tech- In November 2001, Anders Fogh Rasmussen nology (see Jamison 1991). And unlike many led his liberal Venstre party to a resounding other countries, where the urban political cul- victory in the Danish parliamentary elections. ture tended to take on a hegemonic status in At the same time, the then ruling social- the course of industrialization and “post- democratic party suffered its worst election industrialization,” Denmark has continued to defeat in some 50 years. be divided in two, not least because of the economic significance of agriculture (it is said Together with the strong showing of the anti- that there are four pigs for every one person foreigner Danish People’s party, the election in Denmark). As we shall see, this dualistic victory of the liberal party changed dramati- character of Danish society has contributed to cally the composition of the Danish parlia- the formation of a particular set of procedures ment, making it possible for the government to ensure and facilitate public accountability. to achieve a majority without the support of the social-democrats or any of the other “left- On the one hand, in Copenhagen and some- of-liberal” parties. what later in the industrializing cities of Aar- hus and Aalborg, the social-democratic party In other words, the parliamentary ground came to represent large segments of the pub- rules that had long been in operation, by lic within the political system. As in the other which decisions were based on negotiation Scandinavian countries, a system of and compromise across the left/right ideologi- “corporatism” developed, with employers and cal divide, and which had led to a characteris- employees sharing responsibility for govern- tically pragmatic way of doing politics in Den- mental decision-making, especially in relation mark, were altered. The new situation would to industrial policy. On the other hand, the provide the basis for what would soon show liberal party, along with the left-liberal Radi- itself to be the starting point for the making of kale venstre party, which split from the a substantial shift in regimes in relation to mother party in the late 19th century, repre- public accountability procedures. sented large segments of the rural population, who were dependent on agriculture and It is important to emphasize at the outset that food-processing for their livelihoods. Denmark, in almost all respects, is a country of two political cultures, one that is based in

Research Report 3 2004

A somewhat separate system of institutions - mittees, the government claims that it is both and public accountability procedures - came able to save money, as well as eliminate the to be established, which left agricultural policy power and influence of the “experts”. and related scientific-technological development to the farmers and their political repre- Those opposed to the government’s policies sentatives. Because neither of the two politi- have thereby lost much of their influence, and cal cultures were able to achieve dominance fiscal cost-accounting is to become the domi- over the other, forms of consensual delibera- nant procedure for ensuring public account- tion and negotiated compromise became ability of decision-making. characteristic features of Danish governance (see Baark 1997). What is public account- That is why the recent and ongoing shift in public accountability regime is so significant.. ability in Denmark? With its own parliamentary majority, the new government can replace the consensual re- Before going further in our story, we should gime - which, for many observers and partici- attempt to explain what “public accountability pants both inside and outside of Denmark, procedures” actually mean in the Danish con- had come to be taken for granted - by an ex- text. First of all, it should be noted that the plicitly partisan, neo-liberal regime. words do not translate easily into Danish. In the terminology used by political scientists, Public accountability, which until 2001 had public accountability tends to be referred to primarily meant efforts to ensure a democ- as both “democratic control” and “democratic ratic control over decision-making by means legitimacy” (Halkier interview). In the most of multifaceted processes of participation, or fundamental sense, these terms denote the “stakeholder involvement” in governmental ideas of policies decisions are made in ways activities, changed character. Since Novem- that can be controlled by the general public ber, the procedures for public accountability and that decisions gain their legitimacy by are in the process of being reduced to a being grounded in an idea of a “popular will”. rather straightforward effort to satisfy the vot- ers who support the current government and However, when speaking of public account- brought it into power. ability procedures, one should note that while some are primarily related to the aspect of Among other things, the new government is control, which would involve such matters as seeking to do away with the “rule by experts” transparency and openness in decision- that, according to Fogh Rasmussen, had making, others are primarily related to legiti- characterized the previous social-democratic macy, i.e. the ways in which various social government’s ways of making, and account- interests and interest groups are represented, ing for, its decisions. Public accountability and involve such matters as access and par- procedures had previously been based on ticipation in policy-making. efforts to involve different “publics” and, in particular, their representatives in govern- Where the one type of public accountability mental decision-making. By doing away with procedures tend to be formally codified in le- a number of the previous government’s public gal documents, the others tend to be more accountability procedures, in particular a informal and tacit in character, taken for good many of its advisory councils and com- granted or assumed rather than formulated

explicitly. Another way to think of the differ- countability is thought of in Danish, democ- ence between the two types of Danish public ratic control and legitimacy are core ele- accountability procedures is in terms of a dis- ments. tinction between institutions of public accountability, on the one hand, and processes Jensen describes how the Ministry of Finance of public accountability, on the other. has succeeded with normatively constructing and institutionally underpinning fiscal ac- What is common to both types of procedures countability as a prime source of democratic in the Danish context is that issues of public accountability and by the same token en- accountability are discussed in the wider pub- hance its position in the continual governance lic sphere, as well as in more specific or cir- game in the Danish polity (Jensen 2001, p. cumscribed public spaces, in connection to 479). general, and usually rather vague, notions of democracy. Decisions, government agencies, The important point here is that public ac- political processes, laws etc. are labelled ei- countability is treated as a unifying concept ther undemocratic, or democratic, but the ex- that covers various dimensions of account- act meaning of these terms is more implicit ability. But how do these dimensions relate to than explicit. For our purposes, we can say each other? One dimension may be subordi- that democratic practices involve procedures nate to other dimensions of public account- of public accountability, while undemocratic ability in a specific context – they may even practices do not. be in conflict with each other and priority may be given to one dimension, which downplays The political scientist Lotte Jensen (2001) dis- or neglects the others. tinguishes between five dimensions of public accountability: For instance, the newly elected liberal Danish government has announced, as we have • Legal: To what extent do actors comply mentioned, the abolition of a range of govern- with normative prescriptions? ment boards, councils and committees with • Fiscal: To what extent do actors spend the objective of cutting down government ex- public money the most effective way? penditures, among these, the Human Rights • Performance: To what extent do actors Centre. The Centre was established to serve meet the goals articulated by elected politi- as an independent body to monitor violations cians and the expectations they have cre- of human rights in Denmark. ated in the public domain? • Democratic: To what extent do actors re- This example shows that the fiscal account- spect democratic values and enhance de- ability dimension has been given priority over mocratic processes? other dimensions, and, in particular, the ethi- • Ethical: To what extent do actors behave cal accountability dimension (in Jensen’s in accordance with codes of ethics and words: “accordance with codes of ethics and general moral standards? general moral standards”). The abolition of the various institutions is part of a set of In this list of accountability dimensions, de- openly declared goals that the new govern- mocratic accountability does not enjoy any ment has declared should be met within the especially privileged position over – or apart next election period, thus constructing an im- from - the other dimensions, whereas in the age, or expectation that the new government general way in which the idea of public ac- is “performance accountable.”

Research Report 3 2004

As argued by Wolf, the interplay between the might term the cultural basis for the formation various dimensions of public accountability of public accountability procedures in Den- should be understood as a “web of account- mark. As we have already noted, industriali- ability relationships”: zation took a particular form in Denmark in that it was, to a significant extent, based in In this ‘web of accountability relationships’ agriculture. different authorities give priority to different types of accountability with conflicting behav- As such, economic development in Denmark ioural expectations. Priorities can change since the nineteenth century has reflected a over time, and even the ‘dormant’ types of somewhat unique experience. Endowed with accountability can still be invoked in particular few natural resources or minerals compared circumstances. Reform will often involve a to many of the other European nations which shift in emphasis among different types of started industrialization at around the same accountability leading to an even higher risk time, Denmark built its economic prosperity of confusing or conflicting expectations (Wolf on exports of agriculture or agro-industrial 2000, p. 18). processing (cf. Senghaas 1982). As recently as the late 1950s, almost two-thirds of Danish Whereas Wolf’s description of “public ac- commodity exports came from agriculture or countability dynamics” may have some truth food-processing. to it, the notion of “web” in relation to different dimensions of public accountability may be In terms of ideology and political culture, the too imprecise in describing how the dimen- activities and role played by NFS Grundtvig sions actually relate to one another in prac- are important to mention. Perhaps in no other tice. To get public accountability procedures country has one individual had such a con- in action, we will suggest a concept of tinuing presence and influence in the public “regimes of public accountability procedures” consciousness over the past two hundred that are constructed in relation to specific po- years as Grundtvig has had in Denmark. litical conjunctures and contextual conditions. Through his voluminous writings, from hymns For instance, the consensual regime empha- to histories, from political speeches to reli- sized democratic and ethical accountability, gious tracts, as well as in the institutional ac- while the emerging partisan, or neo-liberal, tivities that he inspired, Grundtvig helped ar- regime emphasizes fiscal and performance ticulate an indigenous form of modernization accountability. The point is that, at least in that served to appropriate industrialization Denmark, different people give emphasis to into Danish contextual conditions in a certain different dimensions of public accountability, populist way. and that the opposing views about these regimes of public accountability procedures The philosophy of Grundtvig became a cor- give rise to political controversy and conflict. nerstone of the movement to create Folk, or People's high schools, as well as to enlighten the farmers more generally; his views have Historical background been characterized by a foreign observer as "the foundation for a profound cultural synthe- Where do the concepts and normative ideas sis that spoke eloquently to the question of of public accountability come from? There are nationalism and national identity" (Borish a number of historical experiences and cul- 1991, p. 17). tural traditions that have provided what we

In relation to politics, democratic traditions sociationalism is important in helping to un- have had a long period of formation in Danish derstand the current political landscape and history, and Denmark was one of the few the ways in which the associations as schools countries in Europe that accomplished a of democratic skills help shape what mightbe peaceful transition to parliamentary democ- called a framework of democratic coherence racy. The mobilization of farmers by the Lib- between politicians and the public, between eral Party in the late nineteenth century cre- the “representers” and the “represented” (An- ated a viable opposition to the political domi- dersen interview). nance of the landowner's Conservative Party. The strength of the liberals and, during the The first Danish political associations date twentieth century, of the social-democrats back to the 18th century, to the period of has led to a distinctive delegation of adminis- enlightenment. Landhusholdningsselskabet trative tasks to regional and local govern- (Agricultural Society) sought to improve Dan- ment. ish agriculture by stimulating the use and development of new technologies and the Combined with a wide range of popular asso- spreading of know-how to farmers throughout ciations and educational institutions such as the country (Christensen 1996). These at- the People's High Schools, which aimed to tempts were not just about technology trans- enhance both the practical skills of young fer, they were also carried out as a social en- people in the countryside and their ability to gineering project with the ambition of creating understand and participate in debates over an enlightened social strata that was to en- major political issues, the Danish tradition for hance the country’s economy via scientific decentralized administration has been an im- findings and by applying this knowledge to portant factor in setting the stage for the con- agricultural production. solidation of particular kinds of public accountability procedures. The second half of the 19th century has been labelled the “Age of Associations” by histori- Another key historical factor is the signifi- ans (e.g. Olsen 1990). The period that fol- cance of what has been called lowed the peaceful transition to representa- “associationalism.” There is a saying that tive democracy in 1849 saw, apart from the “whenever two Danes meet, they form an as- political modernisation, new developments sociation.” Whilst this is clearly an exaggera- within the economic sphere and in the wider tion, it is nonetheless true that most Danes do civic society, especially among the farmers, take more or less active part in a number of that were prompted by the formation of new associations in the course of their lives. Dan- associations and interest-groups that had di- ish associations have played important roles rect political power as one of several main in creating the various forms of representa- objectives. tion through which individual citizens can or- ganise themselves and exert political influ- In 1857 the labour market was liberalised; the ence. old guild system that controlled most trades in the cities was abandoned, and now every- Associationalism is a term developed by Lars body was free to compete on the market. Bo Kaspersen, that denotes the importance New trades were emerging and new alliances of associations in the Danish political culture were formed between formerly incompatible but also in a broader sense of being schools associations of people from various trades. of democratic learning (Torpe interview). As- Also, a new group of relatively wealthy farm-

Research Report 3 2004

ers established corporations that made them ment bodies and the associations in the first independent of the major dairies and other half of the 20th century was characterised by retailers. openness and plurality in the sense that

In the towns, on the local level, citizen asso- the associations organised and canalised cer- ciations played important political roles along tain interests and viewpoints to the wider pub- with the political parties and were repre- lic and into the political institutions, who were sented in city councils and municipalities. relatively open minded and responsive. The These developments that were directed at associations were the mediating structures gaining political influence was accompanied between the individual citizen and the state, by the religious national romantic sentiment which mutually influenced each other. The of the time, especially as formulated by associations helped form the citizens’ percep- Grundtvig, whose teachings had a major im- tion of what was to count as ‘proper democ- pact on the farmers’ movement and, in gen- ratic behaviour’ and what norms one had to eral terms, throughout the Danish society. comply with as a democratic citizen. But the political institutions were also contributing to Later in the 1870s the first attempts to form the formation of the citizens’ democratic labour unions were made and the develop- world-view – both directly and indirectly via ment of democratic socialism became a sig- the associations. Thus, it makes no sense to nificant social force in Danish politics when speak of civic society/Life world and State/ the country became increasingly industrial- System as two separate worlds. The political ised in the decades before 1900. Revolution- institutions are just as important for develop- ary socialism did not gain much support and ing a democratic culture as free and inde- the Danish workers’ unions were much influ- pendent associations are (Gundelach and enced by social democratic ideology (Bryld Torpe 2001, pp 81-82). 1994). The associations were “schools of democ- The social democratic party formed its first racy” in the sense that as a member of an government in the 1930s and since then the association, one had to learn and comply with party has played a dominant role in the crea- the rules, i.e. that elections are acceptable tion of the Danish welfare state. The 1930s ways in which the distribution of leader-and generally saw a nationalisation of the political membership roles are made. The former Min- life, where national political issues became ister of Finance, the social democrat Poul connected to the local level, and the more Hansen, argued that “when you join an asso- formal ways of representation via political ciation it feels natural to comply with its rules parties became the order of the day. and regulations – rights and duties are clear and simple – and from the experience of fel- Over time, there has been an increasing pro- lowship in the small follows the understanding fessionalization of how the activities within an of the political fellowship on the national association are organised. Also associations level” (quoted in Gundelach and Torpe 2001, have been seen to play much more powerful p. 80). roles on the political level, hiring professional consultants for managing public relations and However, this model of associations as so on. Already in the 19th century, the asso- schools of democracy refers mostly to the ciations were openly supported by the state period before the 1980s. Previously associa- authorities. The relationship between govern- tions could provide a range of various activi-

ties, sports, parties, holiday trips along with The King established public schools in the the main activities of the association. Today, beginning of the 19th century as a means to the citizen may be enrolled in a range of make a basis for recruitment to the King’s separate associations to fulfil these needs, Army. The rationale behind this was to disci- and one association seldom satsifies them pline the peasants in order to enrol them in all. the Danish army. The first law on public education came was instituted in 1808. The pub- In the 1990s, many associations, and political lic education system has also from the very parties, as well, for that matter, have devel- beginning been important for educating the oped strong and powerful secretariats and public in the skills and workings of democ- typically associations have become primarily racy. The development of Public education lobbying organizations, run much like busi- should be seen as both a process of nesses with a professional staff. This devel- “democratisation” and also of “civilisation”, of opment may have resulted in more political securing social coherence and also of taming influence, but the distance between ordinary unruly elements in the creation of the modern members and their representatives has in- state. creased while the opportunities for exerting one’s influence as an ordinary member have diminished (Torpe and Christiansen inter- The legal system views). A number of institutions have been estab- In any case, it can be suggested that the lished in order to ensure that the citizens can Danish associationalist culture has pervaded control the administrative system - complaints the political life, where corporatism based on boards, courts of justice, the ombudsman, alliances between various associations have rules about the right of access to documents been influencing the policy process, either as etc. - all of which embody public accountabil- lobbyists or because they have been given ity procedures through which the individual or important roles in policy making. a group of citizens can control the rulings of the administrative system. The citizens have Education has also played an important role the right to access all documents that are pro- in various ways in creating what may be duced within the administrative system. All termed a relatively stable society. The school documents are archived in the Public Record system also contributed to the building up of Office (Rigsarkivet). Attempts have been Danish nationalism in various ways. There made to convert all archives into electronic were both formal and informal, more civic so- databases, and this development will most ciety based forms of education. For instance likely continue in the coming years. the public schools and the People’s High Schools that served to instil an appreciation Although the right to access is instituted by and the allegiance not only to the Parliamen- law, there are many examples of difficulties tary system, but also to the King. From the and bureaucratic bottlenecks that have to be 18th century, large parts of the adult Danish overcome if the law is to function optimally. population had a minimum of reading skills, Although all documents are filed according to because the Protestant church had instituted a certain code, there are certain limits to what a rule, that in order for a young couple to get information the citizens can get from the vari- married, they had to be able to read the Lu- ous authorities. theran Catechism (Christensen 1996).

Research Report 3 2004

For instance, an NGO-representative wanted where the Liberal mayor has been accused of to know how many and what sorts of GMOs fraud and of building up a network of private- were planted in Denmark and requested right public-partnerships that have been using lo- of access to documents. The department re- cal tax money for illegitimate purposes. plied that this could not be granted, because the question was too general – he would In more serious cases, and in case in which have to name the specific GMOs that he the citizen does not accept the rulings of the wanted to be informed about. When he re- complaint boards, the citizen has the possibil- turned with a list of plants using codes for ity of having the rulings of the administration various GMOs the department rejected his tried at the Courts of Justice. The court can right of access because the codes were EU pass judgements of whether the rulings of the codes and not based on the Danish code- administration are valid or not. The courts will system. The NGO-representative eventually not settle the cases, but instead lay out the got permission to access the relevant docu- premises for how this should be done. ments by complaining to the Ombudsman (Toft interview). The Ombudsman There may be several reasons for what many citizens have experienced as a reluctance The Ombudsman institution was adopted af- towards granting right of access to docu- ter the Swedish model in 1953. The Danish ments. The law is hard to administer because Ombudsman is situated between the Parlia- the data are not always accessible in the form ment, the administration (municipalities and the citizen wants and no extra funds are ministries) on the one hand and the individual given to administer the law, which puts an citizen on the other. The Ombudsman has no extra burden on the departments when right real executive powers. His duty is to ensure of access is requested. Furthermore, the ex- that the administrative system is functioning pertise within the administration may not al- in a satisfactory manner. ways be sufficient to secure that the right documents are accessed (Toft interview). After each Parliamentary election the new Parliament elects a new Ombudsman, that on There are two types of complaint boards to behalf of the Parliament monitors whether the which the citizens can direct their complaints Danish authorities act in accordance with the over the rulings of the administration: the or- law or if they in other ways make mistakes or dinary complaint boards that are integrated in neglect their duties. The Ombudsman has to the administrative system, (i.e. tax complaint deliver an annual report to the Parliament or boards) and the independent complaint when dealing with cases, that he considers boards that belong to another administrative being of special importance. branch independent of the one that the citizen complained about. The Ombudsman works independently of the Parliament and he decides whether com- The local municipalities enjoy quite a lot of plaints should be investigated. He cannot be independence as local political units, but are a Member of Parliament or municipal council. nevertheless supervised by the county’s su- He employs and dismisses his staff and can pervisory committees. Most recently, a super- demand that he himself be dismissed with six visory committee has been active in the mu- months notice. nicipality of Farum, north of Copenhagen,

Although the law describes the Ombudsman In 1999 the Ombudsman dealt with 949 com- as the Parliament’s Ombudsman, it is more plaints. In 118 of these he upheld the claim- precise to speak of the citizens’ Ombudsman. ants' contention and found that there were For the citizens, the safeguard of the Om- grounds for criticising the rulings of the ad- budsman’s-institution consists of the relatively ministration. In 60 cases he asked the au- free access to making complaints. Com- thorities to reconsider their rulings. Generally, plaints to the Ombudsman is free of charge these recommendations are followed without and only a few conditions have to be met. exceptions. If the authorities maintain their The rulings of the Ombudsman are final, and rulings, the Ombudsman has the possibility of the complaint that must not be given anony- asking the Directorate of Civil Rights to grant mously must be lodged within one year. the claimant civil aid at the courts.

The Ombudsman decides on his own As mentioned above, the Ombudsman has whether he will initiate an investigation into no powers to pass judgements so his author- the matter or not, and what aspects he will ity lies in his capacity to be independent and investigate. He is not confined to investigate make qualified examinations of the cases he what the complainant should wish the Om- enters. In this respect his authority is compa- budsman to do. The starting point is that the rable to the media's that also examines simi- Ombudsman investigates the case if not the lar cases of complaints but have no powers to complaint is groundless or of little importance. pass judgements.

At this stage the Ombudsman evaluates the The authority of the Ombudsman relies on a complaint and the prospect of him being able delicate balance: if the rulings of the Om- to help the complainant. If there seems to be budsman are very controversial, he may risk no prospects of complaining, and there are a loss of credibility, on the other hand, most no further evidence that the rulings of the au- of the cases that the Ombudsman takes on thorities are wrong, the Ombudsman does not are controversial in the sense that they ques- have to ask the authorities for a declaration. tion the rulings of other authority bodies. If the He can then write directly to the complainant Ombudsman refuses to take them on, his ar- and explain why he does not take on the guments for doing so must be well founded, case. for not risking that the trust in him is lost (Søndergaard interview). The Ombudsman also initiates inspections of any of the State’s institutions. These inspections take place foremost where citizens are The political system deprived of their liberty, i.e. prisons, deten- tions, psychiatric hospitals etc. An inspection The Danish parliamentary system is classical may contain an examination of the physical in the sense that the sovereignty is based on conditions at the institution in question, but the will of the people. The parliament also interviews of the inmates and staff. Fur- (Folketing) has 179 seats and comprises, af- thermore, the Ombudsman and his employ- ter the last election of November 2001, eight ees examine relevant documents to deter- political parties. mine whether the rules that apply to the inter- ventions of staff in the inmates privacy has The major debates take place in the Chamber been observed. and the formal decisions are made here. But the decisions are prepared in the committees

Research Report 3 2004

of the Folketing. The Committees have thus to questioning and debate, meetings and po- been labelled the “workshops of the Folket- litical negotiations about the bill. After the 2nd ing.” (www.folketinget.dk). The work of the round of parliamentary debate, the bill is sub- committees is primarily linked to the reading ject to the 3rd round, followed by a parliamen- of Bills and proposals for parliamentary reso- tary vote, by which the bill is normally passed. lution. Before the former social democratic led gov- The Folketing has 24 standing committees. ernment period, the committees played a Each of the committees is composed of 17 more dominant role in preparing the law pro- Members. The working sphere of a commit- posals. However, the workload of this part of tee largely corresponds to that of a Ministry. the legislative process became too over- The Ministry of Social Affairs for instance cor- whelming for the various committees to do, responds to a Social Affairs Committee, the so instead, most often the ministries are the Ministry of Taxation to a Fiscal Affairs Com- originators of the law proposals. This has of mittee and so on. The main task of the Fi- course made the process less transparent but nance Committee is to read finance Bills and more efficient. supplementary appropriation Bills as well as to take a stand on the appropriations required In the first months after the election, the lib- over the year. eral government has managed to do away with the various committees in the sense that Before presenting a bill to the Parliament, the bills have been presented to the parliament ministry that produces the bill usually consults without having gone through the usual proce- several interest groups (NGOs, for example), dure in the committees. Because the govern- government institutions and other actors to ment presides over the majority of votes in hear their reaction to the preliminary bill pro- the Parliament, it is able to avoid the influ- posal. When the ministry has received the ence of the committees. responses to the bill proposal, amendments are incorporated before the bill is presented The European Affairs Committee deals with to the Parliament. questions related to the EU; it is this Commit- tee that gives the Ministers their mandates for After the bill has been presented to the Par- negotiation. The committee is in this way liament, it is usually passed on to a Parlia- more autonomous than the other committees. ment committee, for further elaboration. In the Nine out of ten times, the committee will case of animal welfare issues, the bill is sanction the Minister’s proposal for negotia- passed on to the Parliament’s Juridical Com- tion, after which the Minister goes to Brussels mittee. When working on the bill, the commit- to negotiate. tee is free to ask questions to the relevant ministries, hold meetings with ministers, ar- The EU-Committee can place responsibility range hearings, visit relevant institutions, etc. on the minister on its own, if the minister has not lived up to the expectations of the EU- Before the bill can be subject to the second committee. This happened in the 1980s, round of parliamentary debate, the committee where the Minister of Agriculture received a must produce a report of its work on the bill. “nose” (a reprimand), dished out to him by the The committee decides when the report will EU-committee without the involvement of the be published. In practice, the report is nor- Parliament. The “nose” is a form of sanction mally presented after time has been allotted that is used in cases of less gravity than if for

instance the Parliament gives a minister a tors; reporting and editorial writing were two vote of no confidence, in which case the min- separate activities (Lund 1997). After the sec- ister must step back. ond world war, the press became increasingly critical and were seen to be much more sceptical towards authorities and the journalists The media developed a much more self-conscious approach to putting issues on the agenda, in- As in most modern democracies, the role of vestigating cases etc. the media in providing fora for political discussions and for presenting political issues to the With the establishment of the state monopo- general public has increased dramatically in lised Radio Broadcasting Corporation recent years (Hjarvard 2001). Furthermore, (Danmarks Radio in 1925) and the advent of there seems to be a consensus among media television in 1951 also monopolised by the scientists that the role of the media is that of state, an era of a relatively stable and coher- an independent actor, not just a mediator be- ent public media unfolded itself. There was tween the political level and the citizens, al- much concern that the electronic media were though the exact role of the media is very very powerful and there were fears that televi- hard to define, because of the diversity the sion and radio could be used for ”indoctri- media have in modern society. The freedom nating” the public. of press that was introduced a few years before the democratic constitution in 1849 gave In order to ensure that radio- and television rise to a plethora of newspapers and bulle- programmes were politically balanced, the tins, both on the local and the national level. Board of the Danish Radio Broadcasting Cor- poration was established in 1953 (but has It was common that every major provincial recently been disbanded). The members of town had four newspapers directed at four the Board were selected from the political different ”publics”. In the 20th century this parties in proportion to their representation in structure has been maintained, even though the parliament. Because of the dominance of there has been a centralization of the print the Radio Denmark monopoly the public media, and most towns have lost many of sphere from the 1950s until 1988 has been their separate papers. A range of different characterised as very coherent, given the fact newspapers are written for each audience, or that most Danes had TV-sets and all watched public. Although the direct relation between the same programmes. political parties and newspapers have weakened, some newspapers have been seen to In 1988 the commercial channel TV2 was es- openly support the election campaigns of cer- tablished, and now Danes were challenged tain political parties. by having to choose between two channels. The new TV2 channel was also paid for by Along with the development of the electronic the public service licences and took over the media the roles of journalists have undergone task of establishing local TV-stations, that a number of changes in terms of how news broadcasts news reports each night from the was covered. Generally speaking, before the various regions in Denmark. second world war journalists were seen to be less critical in their way of conveying infor- In the 1990’s cable television services be- mation from experts and authorities - the jour- came popular and now Danes have access to nalists primarily saw themselves as media- a plethora of TV-channels, national, interna-

Research Report 3 2004

tional and local. At the same time, commer- In terms of bargaining between the labour cial channels have been created both on tele- unions and the employers organisations vision and radio. For the most part, however, about wages and other conditions on the la- the evening news are still dominated by the bour market there has been established a news reports from Denmark 1 and TV2 and procedure of three part negotiations with the these reports tend to be almost identical in so-called forligsmand playing the role of me- terms of selection of news stories and the diator. The forligsmand is supposed to inde- style of reporting. pendent of the interests of the other two parts but has the mandate to further the negotia- Due to the competition among the various tions and push the involved actors to reach TV-channels, the journalists have taken on a compromises. In this respect there is a tradi- whole new set of roles in the public sphere, tion on behalf of the state for letting the actors comparable to the dramatist of a theatre. to negotiate themselves instead of imposing (Lund, 1997; Danielsen interview). It is very regulations. common that journalists invite persons, that is, experts or representatives from political The system of contracting out task that previ- parties and interest organisations that repre- ously were taken on by the state has been sent opposing views on an issue to a live de- employed since the 18th century and does bate in the television studio. Although there not represent a historic ‘new’ invention as of- may seem to be some considerations about ten argued by adherents of New Public Man- democratic representation in these debates, agement Reform. Contracting out has since there is little room left for creating a conversa- the 1980s been promoted actively by all of tion in the Habermasian sense that is. aimed the different Danish governments. There has at reaching a common “higher reason.” (This been much controversy and public debate use of experts in news programmes has been about whether outsourcing leads to a deterio- experienced by several of the interviewees ration in the quality of service being provided. Krawack, Jesper Toft, Danielsen, Henrik Some outsourcing schemes have been aban- Toft). By this “staging of democracy” the pub- doned, most recently in a Danish municipal- lic is reduced to the role of spectators who ity, where a private company had taken over experience the quarrels or the drama be- care of the elderly, but failed to deliver a rea- tween representatives with opposing views as sonable and cost-effective service. in a sports match and there is, as such, little opportunity to hear other, more differentiated The involvement of IT-companies in creating views on the issue in question. large government IT-systems has been seen to give rise to a lot of problems or “government IT-scandals.” Some problems The private sector have been caused by private companies that, in order to gain a contract, have been prone There is a tradition and wide range of primar- to underestimate the real costs of the project ily informal procedures for consulting repre- and the real price for providing the service. sentatives from private companies and from industrial associations in the preparatory Since the employment of another subcontrac- phases of policy-making and planning. These tor would mean even more costs, the original consultations can take the form of public private subcontractors have been retained as hearings, but most often they are meetings responsible for carrying out the project. In the behind so-called closed doors. case of one government IT-scandal the audi-

tor of public accounts was enrolled to investi- terprises more socially accountable. For in- gate what financial dispositions had been stance, a lot of effort was put into creating so taken during the course of the project. called light jobs in the private sector for people who otherwise would have had difficulties A number of supervisory committees have finding work. been established to examine public private partnerships (or PPPs) in order to ensure that Green public accountability procedures have the rules are followed in the area. Notewor- been a kind of experimental activity, but the thy are the “County Supervisory Commit- effects of these procedures has been rather tees” (Tilsynsråd) which, in have been given limited, in so far as only a minority of compa- the task of examining and monitoring PPPs, nies have adopted these systems of account- as part of their overall task of overseeing mu- ing. The green accountability procedures nicipal government. A major scandal is cur- have worked well in the relatively few compa- rently being enacted in Farum, where a liberal nies that have adopted these measures and mayor used questionable methods of mixing incorporated them in their marketing strate- private and public funds for a number of gies to help convey an image of social re- highly publicized programs of local govern- sponsibility. But many companies, particularly ment. In particular, he sold many of the mu- in the agricultural and food-processing indus- nicipal services to private companies, in tries, were opposed to these procedures, par- which he was a partner. It has been argued ticularly when they challenged normal busi- that contracting out always results in limited ness practices. means of democratic control, because in transferring public services to private compa- Some private companies have been active in nies, the “political becomes private” – in other initiating dialogues and fostering “stakeholder words, private companies carry out policies involvement” in relation to controversial tech- that are less open for scrutinizing and less nologies. For instance, the biomedical firm open for democratic control by the public. Novo Nordisk, in its development of genetically modified organisms for pharmaceutical A deliberate attempt to diminish public access products, performs animal experiments that to a large government project has been made have been criticised by animal protection in relation to the newly projected Copenha- groups. In recent years, the company has gen Metro System. Representatives from the been engaged in a number of activities with City Council of Copenhagen and their private critics, including regular discussions with rep- counterparts have set up a company resentatives from the non-governmental or- (Ørestadsselskabet A/S) that are in charge of ganizations, and inspection of laboratories by building and outsourcing the operation of the outsiders. Metro System. By doing so, it has been possible for the company to keep their project dispositions and accounts secret to the pub- The making of a lic. consensual regime Other attempts have been made for making companies take on a social responsibility. Es- In the course of the 20th century, consensus- pecially during the former Social Democrat making and compromise tended to become government systems of green accounting central features of political life in Denmark, for were promoted in order to make private en- both external and internal reasons. As a small

Research Report 3 2004

country that was occupied by Germany in the power has since grown into an important ex- second world war, there was a widely-felt port industry (Jørgensen and Karnøe 1995). need after the war for a broad based govern- Similarly, ecological agriculture was practiced ment and a broad consensus and national early and actively, compared to other coun- agreement, particularly in matters of foreign tries, and the "ecological farmers" today are affairs and international relations. Because of an important actor network in the debates the dualistic nature of the country, however, about biotechnology and food production there was an underlying tension that has more generally. been brought out into the open on several occasions during the past 30 years - espe- Another important element in the making of a cially in relation to the European Union consensual accountability is what might be (where opposition remains strong in Den- termed the quality of the public sphere. The mark) and, most recently, immigration. conditions of Danish public life in the 1970s were congenial, we might say, to getting a There were also more pragmatic, internal rea- good debate going. The breadth of the sons behind the making of what might be counter culture and the "new left" were im- termed a consensual regime of public ac- pressive - from communes to Christiania, countability procedures. Since no particular from academic marxism and leftist parties to group in the society could rule without sup- active feminist and environmental movements port from other groups, there was a need to (the fact that the Socialist People's Party had compromise, to reach a consensus or at least been created in the 1950s and become a sig- a representative majority about most social nificant parliamentary force is also important). issues. There were also strong traditions of interaction, as we have seen, between what There were also the new universities of in other countries are the more separate Roskilde and Aalborg, founded in 1972 and spheres of state and civil society. As in the 1974, respectively, which prided themselves other Nordic countries, corporatism had been on their innovative radical approaches to edu- a key feature in the creation of a welfare cation. Roskilde University Center, in particu- state, and in the development of policies, for lar, has continued into the 1990s to be a base example, in relation to environmental protec- for both radical, leftist politics and for peda- tion and technological development (see gogical innovation (almost all undergraduate Christiansen, ed 1996). education takes the form of group project work, and most of it is interdisciplinary, as When public debates about environmental well). There was also in the 1970s a lively and energy issues started to intensify in the alternative media, with the daily newspaper 1970s, particularly around nuclear energy but Information (created in the Resistance move- also around the use of chemicals in agricul- ment of the second world war) and the ture and industry, they took on a special char- weekly Politisk Revy, covering all sides of the acter, and struck especially deep chords in "new social movements", both the cultural the political culture. They were unusually and political. Information was especially im- wide-ranging, but also, from the beginning, portant in covering the nuclear energy de- unusually constructive. Almost at the same bate, as it unfolded in the 1970s, which had time that a movement emerged against nu- an extra advantage in comparison with sev- clear energy, grass-roots groups and people's eral other European countries due to the fact high schools were experimenting with wind that Denmark had not yet established nuclear energy and other renewables, and wind energy: there was thus something to debate

and a lot more need and opportunity for con- tecture students in Copenhagen, which soon structive alternative thinking, including ideas developed into a national organization of en- about new public accountability procedures. vironmental activism. NOAH utilized scientific information and cooperated with scientists The environmental and energy debates were who served as “counter-experts” particularly quite diverse and multifaceted both in sub- in relation to the media. In this way, the first stance and form, and they were widely cov- efforts at creating public awareness of envi- ered in the more established media - both ronmental problems in Denmark were carried radio, television and newspapers, as well as out by an alliance between students and the the alternative press. There also emerged a media. special “radical science” journal in Denmark, Naturkampen (Nature Struggle), which, in The activist approach of NOAH drew on the comparison to radical science journals in Danish tradition of participatory democracy other countries, was unusually professional associated with the People's High Schools, and influential. It covered the many activities and, more generally, on the populist political of leftward leaning scientists and engineers in tradition of the 19th century. The new social Aalborg and Roskilde, often in relation to la- movements like NOAH that emerged in the bor groups around occupational health is- 1970s contributed to a new kind of public sues. Like radical science journals in other sphere that could, for a brief time, combine countries, it covered the issues of sociobiol- rural populism with urban cosmopolitanism. In ogy, nuclear energy, militarism and labor de- contrast to other countries, the "grass roots" skilling; but most importantly perhaps, it pro- dimension remained important, even as envi- vided a vehicle for the kind of radical popular ronmentalists tried to influence energy policy science writing that would continue in book and develop alternative means of energy sup- form in the years to come. Shaped by what ply. The opposition to nuclear energy was might be termed a particular Danish coordinated by an independent Organization “discursive framework”, combining cultural for Information about Nuclear Power (OOA), modernism with a rural-based populism, which so effectively mobilized public resis- Naturkampen could play a role in the public tance and pressure that the Danish govern- sphere that its radical science counterparts in ment abandoned its nuclear plans in the late other countries never managed to achieve. 1970s. In addition, the popular debate on alternative energy sources and various public The environmental “movement” that devel- awareness and information campaigns, en- oped in Denmark in the 1970s was also a couraged movement organizations to foster more significant public presence than it was local practical initiatives which gradually be- in many other countries It was, for one thing, came an accepted part of environmental pol- much more characterized by local experi- icy in Denmark. ments, and a booming wind energy industry is one of the most visible results (Jamison et In a variety of ways, the contextual conditions al 1990: 66ff). In Denmark, environmental is- were substantially changed in the course of sues became more directly associated with the 1980s, as the broad-based and voluntary the alternative political ideologies that grew movements that had been so important in the out of the youth rebellion and the student 1970s became ever more differentiated and movement of the late 1960s. The most impor- professionalized (Jamison 2001). For one tant organization in this connection was thing, in relation to nuclear energy, the move- NOAH, started in 1969 by biology and archi- ments had succeeded in their political task,

Research Report 3 2004

and there was a need to branch out and ex- technology studies at Danish universities, pand the interest in “technology assessment” particularly at the Danish Technical Univer- to other areas. As is so often the case with sity, but also at the new universities in influential social movements, there was a Roskilde and Aalborg (Munch 1995). kind of institutionalization process that set in, as some activists set up consulting firms and A further step in the institutionalization proc- wind-energy companies, others established ess was the establishment in 1986 of the themselves in the state bureaucracy or as Board for Technology, which was created by academic experts, and still others moved into the parliament to provide a focal point for party politics. These developments can be technology assessment activity (Jamison and seen to have weakened the populist aspects Baark 1990). The Board sponsored public of the environmental movement. For another, hearings, which came to be known as con- the political situation changed in the early sensus conferences, such ass, and published 1980s, as the winds of neo-liberalism started a magazine and a number of popular reports, to blow across Scandinavia, and the conser- while participating in a number of projects vative-led coalition government, which came and "social experiments" particularly in rela- into office in 1982, tried to balance the enthu- tion to the social diffusion of information tech- siasms of the 1970s with the new ideological nology. climate of the 1980s. The interest in the environment, however, and support for renewable Much of the activity that the Board was in- energy seemed to cross ideological lines, and volved in was integrally connected to the throughout the 1980s, there was a so-called large technology development programs initi- “green majority” in the parliament that took a ated by the Danish government in the second number of initiatives to establish what we half of the 1980s, and which formed the cor- might call a consensual regime of public ac- nerstones of a new active period of state in- countability. novation policy. Both in relation to the Infor- mation Technology Program, the Biotechnol- There were thus several distinct steps in the ogy Program, and the Cleaner Technology making of the regime. The first step was the program, substantial funding was made avail- creation of a small unit for technology assess- able for technology assessment and informa- ment within the state technology support tion activities, which supplemented the sup- agency, then called the Technology Council. port given to "technology and society" re- In the wake of the energy debate of the search by the Social Science Research 1970s, which had been conducted, not just Council. within the environmental movement, but also under the auspices of a state-supported En- The result of these activities was thus both a ergy Information Campaign, a parliamentary number of new experts in "science, technol- commission was given the task of proposing ogy and society," as well as new opportunity a form for accountability for large technologi- structures for the radical debaters of the cal projects: what has since come to be 1970s. But it is also important to see these called “technology assessment”. The unit at developments as part of a "strategic" shift in the Technology Council was one result, as science and technology policy, which also was the creation of a Technology and Society included, in Denmark, increased funding for program initiative at the Social Science Re- sectorial research institutes outside of the search Council. Support from both units was universities. instrumental in the emergence of science and

Another important factor in the contextual changes of the 1980s was the expansion of The greening of the European Community, which would con- accountability tinue into the 1990s. For one thing, much of the substance of the debate moved to a lar- By the early 1990s, the consensual regime ger, more transnational realm, where it was had become consolidated, and when a social- harder for local and amateurish "grass roots" democratic government was elected to office voices to be heard; and for another many of in 1992, it more or less continued in the same the new experts found themselves involved in ways as its predecessor in stressing social European projects, networks and other activi- and environmental accountability procedures. ties. Eventually, however, the consensus that had been achieved in the 1980s started to break For example, one of the founding members of apart. Naturkampen, Per Sørup, got a job in Brus- sels in the 1980s where he was instrumental For one thing, the new social-democratic min- in establishing the social science research ister of the environment, Svend Auken, who research initiatives in the Environment and had lost a fight for the party leadership, was Climate program, and later helped create the particularly ambitious in his efforts to “green” Institute for Prospective Technology Studies the Danish society, which obviously meant in Seville, where he is now based. that other policy areas were given somewhat lower priority. Auken tried to stake out a lead- Finally, and perhaps of most importance to ing role for Denmark, both in relation to Euro- the changing nature of public accountability pean Union environmental policies (the envi- procedures in Denmark, was the normaliza- ronmental agency was located in Copenha- tion of the issues that had given rise to such gen at his urging, while Ritt Bjerregaard, an- intensive debate in the 1970s and the emer- other leading social-democratic politician, and gence of a new kind of professional environ- former minister, was EU environmental com- mental movement. All the key problem areas missioner). In any case, Denmark was to be - from nuclear energy to industrial pollution, one of the more active countries in seeking to from occupational health and safety to traffic infuse cleaner production processes and en- congestion and urban sprawl - were largely vironmental management systems into indus- taken over by newly established official bod- try in the course of the 1990s, and a number ies, engineering consulting firms, sectorial of green taxes were instituted - a kind of research institutes, and transnational non- greening of accountability (Andersen 1994). governmental organizations. For another, there emerged a kind of back- There came into being in Denmark, as was lash or resistance to further environmental the case in most other European countries, a measures on the part of many of the impor- cluster of government agencies and depart- tant agro-industrial corporations, and, even ments for the environment, transportation, more seriously, within the rural population energy and planning, and new cadres of en- that, as in other parts of Europe, came to be ergy and environmental experts. As else- affected by an influential populist reaction. where, the 1980s were a period when the Other issues, like immigration and declining new social movements were largely trans- health care, gradually became more impor- formed into a range of new professional ac- tant in the political debate than environmental tivities. protection and renewable energy develop-

Research Report 3 2004

ment, especially when the program of green- pean countries, the Danish efforts have been ing or sustainable development was so substantial, and have spread the various pre- closely identified with the social-democratic ventive technical approaches to environ- party and its minister of the environment. mental problems throughout the Danish in- These anti-environmental sentiments were dustry (Remmen 2001). given a highly visible public face in 1997, when the statistician Bjørn Lomborg pub- In the first phase, from 1986-1989, the effort lished a series of articles in the newspaper was concentrated primarily on investigating Politiken, in which he claimed to disclose the the potential for cleaner technologies in differ- “real state of the world” in direct opposition to ent branches of the economy, and in conduct- what environmental organizations and their ing demonstration projects in particular firms. friends in the Danish government were claim- The general approach followed similar ing to be the case. “national programs” in technology development that had taken place in the 1980s, in In Denmark there was a much more deep- relation to information technology and bio- seated realization that "end-of-pipe" solutions technology, and were based on the long- to environmental problems were not suffi- standing Danish emphasis in technology pol- cient, and that new approaches stressing a icy on demonstration projects. change in productive technology were called for. Given the perceived limitations of supply The second phase of the cleaner technology of energy sources - further reinforced by the program, from 1990-92, involved a more ac- decision to abandon nuclear power as a re- tive broadening of focus, as well as increased sult of the intense public debate of the 1970s competence-building and information dis- - the Danish government emphasized the semination. Courses were held at engineer- transition to renewable energy sources. This ing colleges and associations, handbooks led, on the one hand, to the establishment were written, and special branch consulting and rapid growth of the Danish wind turbine schemes in cleaner technology were estab- industry and, on the other hand, to a diversi- lished in four particular branches: furniture- fied regulatory framework in the energy sec- making, meat processing, fish production, tor encouraging energy-efficient technologies. and metal-working. The attention gradually shifted towards identi- fication of solutions that could be integrated At the same time, environmental manage- earlier on in the cycles of production and con- ment systems were instituted in a number of sumption. small and medium-sized companies with governmental support, and major efforts were The relative effectiveness of economic incen- taken to document the experiences with tives in improving the technological and or- cleaner technology, through a number of ganizational capacity for saving energy has technology assessment projects at the tech- inspired similar initiatives in the environ- nological universities. From 1993, the efforts mental field: a move from end-of-pipe solu- have expanded further, as the environmental tions to a model that emphasizes preventive administration has adopted a more flexible, solutions including the development and diffu- interactive approach, seeking to pass respon- sion of cleaner technology. Beginning in sibility and policy initiative from the public to 1986, the Danish government has launched a the private sector. series of major support programs in cleaner technology. Compared to most other Euro-

The new attempts to alleviate the problems of when traditions of popular participation were environmental degradation were, to a signifi- mobilized in the industrialization process and cant extent, based on a dialogue between during the second world war, when resistance public and private interests that has charac- to the Nazis also drew on national cultural terized Danish approaches from the begin- traditions, Auken argued that the strength of ning, and a new ideology of commercializa- Danish democratic institutions and not least tion and the use of market forces in regula- grass-roots movements is an important factor tion. In the political atmosphere that prevailed in explaining the relative success of Danish in Denmark during the 1980s, when the gov- environmental policy. ernment was usually based on a combination of parties from the center to the right of the political spectrum under the leadership of the Conclusions Conservative Party, there was a strong leaning towards liberal economic policies and in- In pursuing the recent shift in public account- direct instruments of regulation, i.e., small ability regime, the new liberal prime minister government. Anders Fogh Rasmussen and most especially his minister for the environment have Even in areas where the government was un- been highly influenced by the teachings of able to secure a majority of votes in the Par- Bjørn Lomborg, who sprung onto the interna- liament for its policies - as the case was for tional stage in the summer of 2001 to great much of the environmental legislation which fanfare when his book, The Sceptical Envi- was dominated by the so-called "green major- ronmentalist, was published in English. Lom- ity" (social liberals, social democrats and two borg’s role is important in understanding the left-wing parties) - the subsequent implemen- shift in accountability regime in Denmark, and tation of policies tended to be framed in the it is also brings out the ways in which the two manner of indirect regulation. political cultures in Denmark have become much more antagonistic than they were in the This shift in awareness and attention to a 1980s. wider economic perspective was also reinforced by the initiatives which sought to inte- As already mentioned, Lomborg wrote four grate technology assessment more directly articles in 1997 in one of the main Danish into policy making procedures. In many ways, daily newspapers, in which he challenged the a particular Danish style of technology as- “litany” of environmental bad news with a sta- sessment found its application in the policy tistical tale of things getting better. Lomborg's debates related to areas such as biotechnol- method of analysis was to reduce everything ogy and cleaner technology (Jamison and to money, in a kind of cost-benefit analysis Baark 1990). run wild. His book, published in Danish in 1998, was called the “Real State of the In the 1990s, Denmark became one of the World,” and was filled with many more figures most active countries in Europe in pursuing than he had managed in his articles. It is im- the new ideas of pollution prevention and portant to realize that cost-benefit analysis for cleaner production. Indeed, the environ- Lomborg is a kind of religion rather than what mental minister Svend Auken proposed, on a most of us think of as science; if you believe number of occasions, that Denmark should that the environmental situation is improving, seek to provide an exemplary model for other then you find the figures to support that belief. countries to follow. As in the 19th century,

Research Report 3 2004

And now the Danish government, eager to previous government’s ministry of the envi- correct the mistakes of the previous govern- ronment, and which have generally received ment and its experts, appears to be acting on positive environmentalist as it soon showed that belief. A new institute of economic envi- itself to be. ronmental assessment has been proposed, while a large number of the previous govern- The government has decided to cancel sev- ment’s environmental research programs are eral large wind-energy projects and close being cut. For Fogh Rasmussen and his min- down a number of innovative programs in en- isters, environmental protection costs too vironmental research evaluations, as well as much money, and other priorities are simply a good deal of international interest. By the more important. The pioneering role that Den- time the new minister of finance, Thor Peder- mark has played in relation to international sen, presented the government’s budget at environmental negotiations, wind energy de- the end of January 2002, the drastic nature of velopment, urban ecological experimentation, the transformation was starting to become and so many other areas, is fast becoming a clear. Pedersen eliminated all of the “green thing of the past. taxes” that had bothered much of the liberal party’s electoral constituency, and soon The new procedures that have started to be thereafter the environmental ministry an- put in place differ from the old in at least three nounced drastic cuts. This government main ways. On the one hand, because the clearly had a very different underlying con- parliamentary map was so fundamentally re- cern with the environment than the previous drawn by the election results, the new gov- government had had. ernment could behave in an explicitly partisan manner. Certain publics simply no longer Finally, the government’s overall conception needed to be taken into account. The new of public accountability differs from that of the government quickly made it clear that the previous government. The general idea in the broad-based form of parliamentary decision- new accountability regime is that there is only making that had been the standard through so much money to go around - there are to most of the past 50 years would be replaced be no new taxes - and if health care and the by a much more ideological approach. elderly need more resources, then the funding for foreign aid and environmental protec- On the other hand, the new government’s tion, for example, must be reduced signifi- substantive priorities are different from those cantly. The main focus of accountability has of the previous government. Shortly after the been changed - from social and environ- election victory, the new government set to mental performance to fiscal, or financial per- work seeking to undo much of the program of formance. Accountability is to be represented the previous government. It had been known in financial terms: real monetary accounting that the government would cut drastically in rather than some kind of “green” or social ac- the foreign aid budget, as well as in the vari- counting. ous programs that made life easier for immi- grants to Denmark. It remains an open question how radical this shift in regime will turn out to be, but the re- But what had not been known was that the cent changes do indicate that a discussion of new government was so strongly anti- and public accountability procedures in Denmark development - the so-called green jobs fund, must take account of the broader political for example - that had been supported by the context.

Edquist, Charles and Bengt-Åke Lundvall: References “Comparing the Danish and Swedish Sys- tems of Innovation,” in Richard R. Nelson, ed, Andersen, Jørgen Goul et.al, eds: Hvad folket National Innovation Systems: A Comparative magter, Hans Reitzels Forlag, København Analysis Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 1993.

Andersen, Jørgen Goul et al, eds: Den demo- Gundelach, Peter og Torpe, Lars: ”Befolknin- kratiske udfordring, Hans Reitzels Forlag, Kø- gens fornemmelse for demokrati: foreninger, benhavn, 2001. politisk engagement og demokratisk kultur,” in Andersen et al., eds (2001). Andersen, Mikael Skou: Governance by Green Taxes: Making Pollution Prevention Hjarvard, Stig: ”Politik som mediemontage. Pay, Manchester University Press, 1994. Om mediernes forandring af den politikse kommunikation,” in Andersen, et al., eds Baark, Erik: “Environmental Science and (2001). Technology Policy in a Consensual Mode: The Case of Denmark,” in Andrew Jamison Jamison, Andrew: “National Styles in Tech- and Per Østby, eds, Public Participation and nology Policy: Comparing the Danish and Sustainable Development: Comparing Euro- Swedish State Programmes in Microelectron- pean Experiences. PESTO Papers 1. Aalborg ics/Information Technology,” in Ulrich Hilpert, University Press, 1997. ed, State Policies and Techno-Industrial Inno- vation, London: Routledge, 1991. Borish, Steven: The Land to the Living: The Danish Folk High Schools and Denmark's Jamison, Andrew: The Making of Green Non-violent Path to Modernization, Nevada Knowledge. Environmental Politics and Cul- City, California: Blue Dolphin Publishing, tural Transformation, Cambridge University 1991. Press, 2001.

Bryld, Claus: ”Den demokratiske socialismes Jamison, Andrew, Ron Eyerman, Jacqueline gennembrudsår” Doctoral thesis, Roskilde Cramer with Jeppe Læssøe: The Making of 1994. the New Environmental Consciousness: A Comparative Study of the Environmental Christensen, Dan Charlie: ”Det moderne pro- Movements in Sweden, Denmark and the jekt” Doctoral Thesis, Gyldendal, Copenha- Netherlands, Edinburgh University Press, gen 1996. 1990.

Christiansen, Peter Munk, ed: Governing the Jamison, Andrew and Erik Baark: “Modes of Environment: Politics, Policy and Organiza- biotechnology assessment in the USA, Japan tion in the Nordic Countries, Nordic Council of and Denmark,” in Technology Analysis & Ministers, Copenhagen, 1996. Strategic Management, nr 2, 1990.

Research Report 3 2004

Jensen, Lotte, “Constructing Images of Ac- Wolf, Adam, “Introduction to Symposium on countability in Danish Public Sector Reform” accountability in public administration: Recon- in L. Jones, ed, Learning from International ciling democracy, efficiency and ethics,” in Public Management Reform. Elsevier-Oxford International review of Administrative Sci- Press, London, 2000. ences, vol. 66, 2000.

Jørgensen, Ulrik and Peter Karnøe: “The Danish Wind-Turbine Story: Technical Solu- Interviews tions to Political Visions?” in Arie Rip, Tom Misa and Johan Schot, eds, Managing Tech- Jørgen Goul Andersen, Aalborg University, nology in Society. The Approach of Construc- January 22, 2002. tive Technology Assessment. London: Pinter Publishers, 1995. Oluf Danielsen, Roskilde University Center, December 11, 2001. Lund, Anker Brink: ”Smitsomme sygdomme i dansk journalistik” Doctoral Thesis, Roskilde Bente Halkier, Roskilde University Center, Universitetsforlag, 1996. November 29, 2001.

Lundvall, Bengt-Åke, ed: National Systems of Henrik Toft Jensen, Roskilde University Cen- Innovation - Towards a Theory of Innovation ter and Chairman of the Danish Board of and Interactive Learning, London. Pinter Pub- Technology, December 13, 2001. lishers, 1992. Susanne Krawack, Danish Board of Trans- Munch, Birgitte: “Danish approaches in social portation, December 17, 2001. studies of technology,” in Tarja Cronberg amnd Knut Sørensen, eds, Similar Concerns, Eva Smith, Copenhagen University, February Different Styles? Technology Studies in 2, 2002. Western Europe. Luxembourg: European Commission. COST A4, 1995. Jens Teilberg Søndergaard, Copenhagen University, February 1, 2002. Olsen, Olaf: Gyldendal og Politikens Dan- markshistorie 1850-1900, Gyldendal, Copen- Jesper Toft, Økoanalyse A/S, December 14, hagen, 1990. 2001.

Remmen, Arne: “Greening of Danish Industry Henrik Christiansen, Copenhagen University, - Changes in Concepts and Policies,” in February 8, 2002. Technology Analysis and Strategic Manage- ment, nr 1, 2001. Peter Munk Christiansen, Aalborg University, January 22, 2002. Senghaas, Dieter: Von Europa Lernen: Ent- wicklungsgeshiichtliche Betrachtungen, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1982.

Genetically modified foods

By Jesper Lassen Introductory background

The assessment of gene technology and, with it, GM foods, can be seen to have gone Summary through several phases since the 1970s, roughly corresponding to the different stages The case study deals with the policy debates of technological development (Jelsøe, Du- and issues of public accountability associated rant, 1998, Lassen, 1999). In each phase, with research, development and production of there have been somewhat different issues genetically modified (GM) foods in Denmark. and actors involved in the policy debate and, as a result, there have thus been some rather The study seeks to place these debates and significant changes in the processes of public issues in a broad historical and cultural per- accountability and governance (see chart 1). spective, by tracing shifts in both the form and content of public accountability proce- Genetic technology was taken up as a topic dures from the emergence of genetic engi- for debate in Denmark primarily by critical sci- neering in the 1970s to the present. entists and science students. It was particularly the group around the journal, Natur- Debates in four main contexts are briefly de- kampen (Nature Struggle), that first brought scribed and analyzed, with particular focus on genetic engineering to public attention. As issues of public accountability: the public pol- elsewhere, the technology was discussed in icy arena, the business community, and in this first phase in relation to what might be particular the firm Novozymes, the academic termed the underlying theoretical implica- research community and finally the civil soci- tions, and, as in other countries, issues of sci- ety, or non-governmental sector. entific responsibility and laboratory safety were also subject to debate. In Denmark, the debates about genetic engineering have been comparatively intense as GM foods became much more controversial more members of the public and their repre- in the period of development, in the 1980s, at sentatives have gotten involved, or attempted first in relation to events taking place abroad to get involved in the processes relating to (mainly in the US) but more actively and lo- the development, production and, more re- cally, in the second half of the 1980s, in rela- cently consumption of GM foods. In general tion to the plans of the Danish Sugar Industry terms there has also been a broadening of (De Danske Sukkerfabrikker, later Danisco) the debate from an initial concern with scien- to develop and carry out field trials with GM tific issues and the safety of laboratory ex- sugar beets. The issue was framed almost periments to a much wider range of issues - exclusively in terms of environmental risks, from environmental risks to political economy and the environmental organization, NOAH, to ethics and morality. was particularly active.

A brief history of gene technology assessment

ca 1978 - 1984: scientific assessment (research phase) Debates about laboratory safety in relation to R-DNA experiments and the theoretical implications of genetic engineering, mostly carried out among scientists. In Denmark, a wing of the “radical science movement” was a key actor in this early phase.

ca 1984 - 1996: risk assessment (development phase) Main issues: control and regulation of field experiments and product development; main actors were environmental organizations and technology assessors (both in academia, civil society, and government). In Denmark regulation is established and gene technology is discussed widely in the media and in the general public sphere.

ca 1996 - : ethical assessment (diffusion and marketing phase) Discussion of political and ethical consequences of GM food product, including involvement of consumer organizations, bioethics experts, public and private agriculture and industrial officials, as well as political parties and organizations.

Chart 1: A brief history of gene technology assessment

The Danish parliament passed a law on ge- Pegasus at the Danish Technological Univer- netic technology and the environment in 1986 sity, which was a broad assessment of the – the first general GM law in the world - which economic, social and environmental conse- included a ban on deliberate releases, al- quences of biotechnology) (Jamison, 1990). though the government could make exceptions in special cases. This rule was later re- From an accountability perspective, these moved after a revision, paving the way for activities were largely framed within what we continued research in and development of have termed the “consensual regime”; indeed GM sugar beets and later also other plants. they were a central feature of the consolidation of this regime in relation to technology There was a rather widespread public debate policy. The idea was to ensure that as many about GMOs in the 1980s, partly as part of an different interests and interest groups as pos- institutionalization of technology assessment, sible were represented in the discussions, in at both the universities (particularly the tech- order to have a broad, consensual support for nological universities, where units for technol- both the regulatory and support policies of the ogy assessment were established - in Aal- different ministries (environment, research borg and Copenhagen) as well as at the state and industry). level (where, among other things, the Danish Board of Technology was created). There Perhaps the most innovative Danish initiative were special funds allocated within the Bio- from this period, and still one of the main ac- technological Research Programme, which tivities of the Board of Technology was, char- was initiated in 1987, for information activities acteristically enough, the arranging of so- about the new genetic technologies, and called Consensus Conferences (Consensus there were many meetings, publications, as conferences have since become an interest- well as larger research projects (such as ing case of “technology transfer” in relation to

Research Report 3 2004

public accountability and participation. Dan- Nordisk also continued their development and ish-style conferences have been held in a production of enzymes and other agents for number of different countries, particularly the food industry in this period. In 1996, a over the past 5-10 years. In this respect, Dan- new phase ensued with the coming of GM ish accountability procedures have become food products to market, and new actors an interesting source of public relations and emerged, such as Greenpeace, but also or- even export income for the Danish govern- ganizations like Forbrugerrådet (The Con- ment). Consensus conferences are a staged sumers Association) began to discuss GM assessment activity, where the aim is to turn issues. the traditional power relations upside down. The low level of controversy characterizing This is obtained by giving a group of lay peo- the years from 1991 until 1996, can be ex- ple the power to set the agenda for the as- plained in different ways. On the one hand, it sessment and question selected experts be- has been suggested that the regulation was a fore writing up a consensus document. As result of traditional Danish consensus seek- such consensus conferences can be seen as ing politics, ensuring that the regulation re- one among different deliberative instruments flected and addressed the public anxiety applied attempting to make gene technology (primarily understood in terms of risks to the accountable to the public. environment and health). The absent conflict was hence an expression of the ”success” of The first consensus conference was carried public participation and information cam- out in 1987, and addressed genetic technol- paigns in the 1980s. On the other hand, the ogy in industry and agriculture. Despite a low conflict level can also be seen as a con- great deal of attention given to this and sub- sequence of a shift in the process of innova- sequent consensus conferences, their direct tion, where GM food technologies around identifiable impact on GM food politics in 1990 tended to move from an “open” period Denmark, as in other countries, has been lim- of field trials into a more commercial and con- ited. The major contribution to the GM food cealed phase of product development. politics is no doubt to be found in terms of the media attention they have created and thus This state of things was, however, seriously the impacts on the discourses about gene disturbed when it became publicly known that technology. GM soya was shipped from the US to Den- mark and other European countries. This Following the intense debates in the 1980s, event served to reopen the controversy over there was a pronounced decline in public as GM foods. As it has been documented by well as political attention towards GM foods in surveys and qualitative studies in a number of the early 1990s. This development coincided European countries since the mid 1990s, the with a lower level of activity in NOAH, and core of this controversy was a GM food in- institutionalized technology assessors - at the dustry, researchers and the majority of politi- universities and ministries - more or less tak- cians failing to understand and address the ing over the role that NOAH had had in terms critique expressed by the public. As the con- of educating, or informing the public. In the troversy was reopened in 1996, it became food sector, Danisco continued their develop- clear that the accountability procedures ap- ment of GM sugar beets and the seed com- plied in the past - public participation in the pany Trifolium was developing GM fodder shape of e.g. consensus conferences, infor- turnips. Industries like Chr. Hansen and Novo mation activities and TA projects - were not

sufficient. A main reason for this, it was now This can be seen as a response to what hap- recognized, was the failure to address the pened in 1996, when Monsanto had ignored concerns of the public. In a way this demon- consumers by denying the possibility of seg- strated that the participatory procedures - regation of GM and non-GM crops - much to widely famed outside Denmark - had never the frustration of the wider public. Wider ethi- really been taken seriously when it came to cal concerns remained, however, ignored by designing regulation or making decisions of the majority of the politicians. importance for research and the development of GM foods. All in all it became clear that In the period following the soya crisis there new procedures for ensuring an accountable are indications of a growing understanding research and technological development among some politicians and policy makers of were needed. the complexity of the public attitudes to GM foods. This can be seen in the increased pub- The failure of the political processes was not lic funding of bio-ethical research as well as realized overnight. It was clearly demon- an incipient understanding of the need for the strated by the debates in Folketinget (the Par- inclusion of ethical assessments as the basis liament) following the arrival of the soya. Al- for approval of GM foods. One result of this though never clearly formulated, the general new understanding was the establishment of opinion in the Parliament in 1996 was that the the 'BioTIK' group, an expert group of phi- public rejection was irrational, since safety losophers and other academics set up to was ensured by the existing procedures in sketch the frameworks of an ethical assess- terms of regulation. At the political level the ment. The conclusions formed the basis of a most important short-term outcome of the report to the Parliament, which will be dis- soya crisis was an attempt to restore public cussed in more detail below. accountability of GM foods by agreeing that it should be official Danish policy in EU to pro- Although bio-ethics in this way was estab- mote efficient labeling schemes. In conse- lished as an area that had to be taken into quence of this and in continuation of the gen- account, and an ethical discourse developed eral perception that the public was (only) wor- outside narrow philosophical circles, specific ried about environmental and health risks, the actions, that is, the development of new ac- government joined the restrictive countries in countability procedures beyond “good inten- EU in a moratorium of deliberate releases, tions” still remain to be taken. Neither Danish awaiting implementation of new regulation law nor EU regulation take account of any- ensuring segregation and defining a satisfac- thing but environmental and health risks, and tory minimum level of GM contamination of the use of labeling as a mandatory instru- non-GM foods. ment.

By taking this step, the Parliament tended to The Danish food industry has been a rather move the conflict from the political sphere to silent actor after the soya crisis. Although the market, making it a matter to be resolved there is evidence that they have products in in the relation between consumers and the the pipeline, to be marketed when/if public producers/distributors. By this “marketization” critique evaporates, they have not tried to of the conflict, accountability could be pro- promote these. Other industrial actors like vided primarily by giving consumers the op- Novo Nordisk (after 2000 Novozymes), pro- tion to choose freely on the market – that is to ducing among other things GM enzymes to choose to purchase the GM products or not. the food industry, have during the 1990s de-

Research Report 3 2004

veloped a strategy of involving the public in the produced account to risks related to re- their marketing and PR activity (see below). search and production using gene technology. As we will see, one group of actors which has generally failed to develop appropriate public In the account “Genteknologi og Sikker- accountability procedures in relation to GM hed” (Gene Technology and Safety) the com- foods is the researchers. As we shall see mittee concluded that three separate acts later researchers tend to be portrayed as un- were needed to regulate the risks of gene scrupulous or in the pocket of industrial inter- technology: an act addressing research, an ests. This, and the fact that GM researchers act addressing uses in agricultural production depend on gene technology in a different way and an act regulating the use of gene tech- than industry and retailers who have gene nology in products and production in general. technology as one option among others, may be the reason why we among plant biotech- Parallel to the work in Gensplejsningsudval- nologists still find a solid representation of the get, the Udvalg om Etiske Probelmer ved understanding that the public is irrational and Ægtransplantation, Kunstig Befrugtning og ill informed about scientific facts (Meyer, Foster Diagnostik (The Committee on Ethical 2001). Problems Regarding Transplantation, Artifi- cial Insemination and Diagnostics) was set up. Apart from investigating ethical problems The policy process: of the technologies mentioned in the title of the committee, the mandate also specifically developing an ethical instructed the committee to look into gene technology (Indenrigsministeriet, 1984). discourse

Although the mandate did not specifically ask From the very start of the Danish debate, bio- the committee to limit its assessment of gene technology was discussed as an issue raising technology to human uses, gene technology safety as well as wider social and ethical was presented within a human/medical questions. The concerns were raised to the frame, leading the committee to interpret their extent that Minister of the Interior in 1983 de- mandate as limited to social and ethical as- cided to set up two committees to make ac- pects and the mentioned new diagnostic counts of the need for regulation of safety is- methods to the extent they are used or may sues on the one side and ethical issues on be used on humans. Safety issues were ac- the other. cordingly not dealt with, but explicitly seen as

belonging under the Gensplejsningsudvalget. Gensplejsningsudvalget (The Committee for Likewise ethical questions related to animals Genetechnology) was set up to suggest the and plants although seen as ethically rele- organisation of public administration of the vant, were seen as falling outside the man- use of the new biotechnological processes date for the committee. In the report with a specific focus on the risks to environ- “Fremskridtets Pris” (The Price of Progress) ment and humans. The mandate for the com- the committee concluded that there was no mittee pointed out that ethical questions were need for a specific ethical regulation, but rec- not to be an aspect of the account, but would ommended instead the establishment of an be "taken up in a broader context" (Indenrigs- advisory ethical committee within the human ministeriet, 1985). Interpreting this mandate, area. the committee dedicated their overall focus in 35

As described here, the first initiatives from was largely reduced to the question of avoid- Danish authorities led not only to a separation ing risks - the means first of all being the laws of applications but also a separation of which on gene technology and environment and concerns should be addressed in which con- working environment (Miljøministeriet, 1987). texts. In this way the different mandates and their interpretation by the two committees can Hence the accountability of GM foods was - be seen as both an illustration of the two in the political processes at parliament - dominant framings of the gene technological mainly seen in the context of risks, whereas issue until the mid 1990s, but also as an im- ethical and social issues were never seriously portant structuring force behind the develop- addressed. An exception from this picture ment of different framings (Andersen, 1992). was the Det Genteknologiske Råd (The Gene Technological Council) established in 1987, In the following years, a tendency to split, or having a mandate that included risk as well separate the discussions, and indeed the as ethical issues. Ethical aspects became, regulation, can be observed allowing for the however, never a key priority of the council, development of two separate discourses: On probably due to the dominance of biotech- the one hand a human-ethical discourse nologists: six representatives from biotechnol- where the focus was on the ethical, and to ogy and industry were appointed and only some extent social questions pertaining to one from humanities (a pastor). By example applications directly related to human uses. the council did not take up ethical question in On the other hand a production-risk dis- its first judgment of the Danish situation in course, where the focus was on the risks to 1988, but only addressed limitation to the re- environment and human health. Although search and industrial application (Det Gentek- ethical questions regarding the use of ani- nologiske Råd, 1988). mals and plants were recognized by both committees, such questions were excluded The somewhat ambivalent attitude towards from the accounts and thus also largely from GM foods (and other non-human applications the following formal policy process and regu- of gene technology) expressed in the writings lation. In addition questions of microorgan- from the two committees was repeated in the isms and ethics were not raised by the two parliamentary debates over gene technology. committees. A telling example was a question in 1986 asked of the Minister for the Environment, by Hence public authorities and government a member of the Socialistisk Folkeparti sought to ensure the accountability of gene (Socialist People’s Party, SF) concerning technology in two different ways depending measures taken to keep humans and the en- on the area of application. The political and vironment free from risks (Folketinget, 1986). regulatory structures constructed in the fol- Although the question specifically was about lowing years took up this split accountability: risk issues, the opposition as well as the Min- In relation to human applications, account- ister stressed that there were wider ethical ability of gene technology was to be ensured concerns that needed to be addressed, as by a combination of the Det Etiske Råd (The the Ministry put it: Ethical Committee) set up in 1987 to advise public authorities (Indenrigsministeriet, 1987), "Finally it is my view that there is a need to and a number of laws and other regulatory consider also ethical aspects. The Minister for initiatives. For GM foods and other uses of the Interior has recently submitted a Bill ban- gene technology in production, accountability ning certain experiments using genetic ma-

Research Report 3 2004

nipulation on humans. Similar problems are The core of the parliamentary inquiry in 1994 raised in relation to animals and plants. To was however on technicalities of labeling, le- me there is a major difference between what gal issues and risks - there was still no devel- science is capable of doing, and what we, oped ethical discussion of GM food matters. keeping our basic philosophy of life in mind, Following the re-opening of the controversy in will accept" (lbid.). 1996 this picture did however change dramatically. A first sign of this was a debate in The Minister promised to make the issues Parliament coinciding with the unloading of subject to public debate and consider how the first GM soya in Denmark. Here several ethical questions outside the human area speakers took up ethical questions as well could be addressed in coming acts. Whereas specific questions in relation to the consum- the public debate was stimulated in the fol- ers’ freedom of choice, the power of multina- lowing years (see the following section), ethi- tionals, the third world and what benefits are cal questions were never taken up in the considered legitimate. The most striking ex- regulation set up in 1986, or in the subse- ample was a statement from the spokes- quent revisions in 1989 and 1991. woman from Kristeligt Folkeparti (The Chris- tian Democrats), who elaborated on elements During the 1990s ethical questions beyond of an ethical assessment – this speech, how- the human area began to appear in the wider ever, did not evoke any particular resonance political processes of gene technology. The among the other parties. Although ethical Ethical Council on Animal Ethics (Dyre-etisk questions were taken up focus remained on Råd), was e.g. established in 1991, given the risks, technicalities of regulation and the use- task to oversee ethical questions in relation to fulness of GM foods (Folketinget, 1996). animals - although the focus was on animal protection in a traditional sense, the council Whereas the soya controversy primarily was also given the task to follow the gene served as an eye-opener for the inability of technological development (Justitsministeriet, the existing regulatory structures to cope with 1991). In 1992 The Board of Technology the concerns of the public, the announcement hosted a conference on transgenic animals, of the cloned sheep Dolly a few months later, specifically taking up ethical issues added major elements of ethics to the parlia- (Teknologinævnet, Teknologiske dyr. Indgreb mentary debate. Now a central focus of the i kønsceller på højerestående dyr. Teknologi- debate of GM foods was the ethical ques- nævnets rapporter 1993/1, København, tions, leading to the following parliamentary 1993). And in 1994 ethical issues were taken decision: up during a parliamentary enquiry about labeling of GM foods and ingredients. The re- "Considering that: sult being an unanimously adopted motion for the biotechnological development raises ethi- an adjournment stating that it is Danish policy cal and environmental questions concerning to avoid marketing for unlabelled GM foods in humans, animals and plants and that Denmark. The arguments were not only human cloning is forbidden in Denmark in re- drawing on the risks of these products, but search as well applied on humans also on the consumers rights to a free choice The Parliament urge the Government to: - a freedom that could be expressed in a de- Ensure that animal cloning is limited to re- sire to avoid GM products based also on ethi- search cal or religious concerns, as it was argued by Ensure experiments on full grown cloning is the proposers from SF (Folketinget, 1994). limited to the extent that no fully developed /

subjects are produced. cated to public debates and meetings - it was Ensure that cloning of domestic animals is never taken seriously and made subject to not taking place e.g. research activities, parliamentary enquir- (…) ies or accounts. The period following the reopening of the controversy in 1996, can Before end of 1997 (…) work to find a method largely be understood as period, where the ensuring that intervention against develop- frameworks of a GM food-ethical discourse is ments offending the ethical norms of society under construction in the sense that a vo- can take place in due time; and that a founda- cabulary and taxonomy of ethical concerns tion for a renewed debate in the general pub- related to GM foods is created by public au- lic as well as in Parliament of the ethical limi- thorities and in Parliament. tation to research, is created" (Folketinget, 1997). In the past, ethical and societal aspects of gene technology had primarily been taken up Neither Dolly nor the GM soya represent sur- by Teknologirådet (The Danish Board of prises in a purely scientific sense: GM food Technology), this changed after 1996, as the like the cloning techniques had been subject issues pops up in other contexts also. Among to intense research and development activi- the most important new domain of debate ties in many countries for more than a dec- and discursive construction was Erhvervsmin- ade. Regardless of this, they took the public isteriet (The Ministry of Trade and Industry), by surprise and hence also the Parliament who had previously only related to the gene and public authorities, who had been working technologies from a strictly business oriented hard in the 1980s to construct frames ensur- point of view. Among the initiatives set up by ing the accountability of GM foods. In a way the Minister was the so-called BioTIK group, the events after 1996 clearly demonstrated a working group with 11 members counting the goal of publicly accountable GM foods philosophers, biologists, theologians, medical had not been reached, and it is in this light doctors and other academics who had been the urge to create the basic framework of an working in and around biotechnology. The ethical debate about limits to research must task of the working group was to produce a be seen. discussion paper that could serve as the basis of a balanced debate and increase the In the area of GM foods, ethics thus diverged understanding of the public concern. from risks in the sense that risks at the national level had been subject to continuous By the end of 1997 the working group pro- assessments, several accounts and parlia- duced the report De genteknologiske valg mentary enquiries and scientific reports; and (The Gene Technological Choices) (BioTIK- internationally risk assessment was accepted gruppen, 1997); a report, discussing issues as a scientific discipline. Unlike this the ethics (visions as well as problems) identified to be of GM foods had never had national attention central for the decision making about gene nor developed into an acknowledged scien- technology. One outcome of the report was a tific discipline noticed by the political proc- suggestion of ethical criteria for development esses. and application of gene technology, for the first time seriously integrating the different Many had, as demonstrated above, stressed human and non-human applications and in- the importance ethical questions in relation to cluding ethical, risks as well societal con- GM foods, but so far the issue had been allo- cerns.

Research Report 3 2004

In March 2000, the minister of business pre- sues – the status of the council has, however, sented a statement on ethics and gene tech- not been changed as it is still consultative. In nology to the parliament (The Danish Ministry summary Danish bio-politics still is character- of Trade and Industry, 2000). This statement, ized by a strong utilitarian tradition, where receiving general support among the political risks to health and environment is weighed parties, repeated the conclusions of the re- against the benefits, although discussions of port from the working group, and stated the basic ethical principles like autonomy, dignity, policy the government wanted to pursue. This integrity and vulnerability are becoming inte- included among other things 1) To work for grated elements (Rendtorff, 2000). an international convention on the inclusion of ethical considerations in the regulation of biotechnology in plants and food. 2) To work for The business arena: the inclusion of ethics in the in the regulation of gene technology, in particular ensure the merging public and inclusion of ethics in the revision of the EU- economic accountability directive on deliberate releases. 3) To develop guidelines for ethical assessment of Among the fist industrial movers on the bio- new biotechnological methods. 4) To support technology arena in the early 1980s were the debate and information. companies Novo and Nordisk Gentofte. Novo

as well as Nordisk Gentofte had production of One outcome of the statement was the estab- human insulin and other pharmaceuticals, lishment of the so-called BioTIK secretariat and Novo, by far the larger of the two, had in under the Ministry for Trade and Industry in addition industrial enzymes for the food sec- 2001. The secretariat joined nine ministries tor and for the detergent industry as important working for realizing the ambitions of the areas of business. statement, that is on the one hand the incor- poration of ethical principles in the regulation In 1984 Novo and Nordisk Gentofte almost of and decision-making about biotechnology, simultaneously announced plans to develop and on the other hand the establishment of a and apply genetically modified organisms in basis for public consultation and information the production of insulin respectively human (See: www.biotik.dk). growth hormone. It is characteristic of this

early phase of development of gene technol- These attempts to twist the policy process in ogy in Denmark, that both companies sur- a more ethical direction, has, however not yet rounded their concrete plans with a high level materialized themselves in significant regula- of secrecy. At that time, there was no compul- tory changes. The 2002 revision of the central sory registration of research or other uses of law in regulation GM foods, The Act on Gene gene technology in Denmark. Instead compa- Technology and Environment, does include nies or researchers could, if they wished to, ethics considerations, but, following the line report their use of genetic manipulation to of the revised EU directive for deliberate re- "Registre-rings-udvalget", where the reports lease, this is an open possibility, not manda- were kept secret to the public (Toft, 1985). tory (Miljøministeriet, 2002b).

This strategy of relative secrecy must be One of the substantial changes is a recent seen in the light of the common understand- extension of the mandate of the Ethical Coun- ing that gene technology in itself is not differ- cil (Etisk Råd) to also cover non-human is- ent from other technologies, hence regulation 39

should address the products, not the way the view that a specific regulation was not they are produced (Kiel, 1984). needed. In the years following the introduction of the Act on gene technology and envi- Consequently there is also no need to go ronment in 1986, the Association for Biotech- public with plans to apply gene technology nological Industries in Denmark (Foreninigen and stimulate a debate – the secrecy may on af Bioteknologiske Industrier i Danmark) the other hand also reflect a (at that time counting companies like Novo, Nordisk Gen- common) perception that avoiding public de- tofte, the breweries and sugar industry bate is a useful strategy to ensure a peaceful among its members, accordingly fought the – business environment. The events surround- to their opinion - strict Danish regulations. ing Monsanto’s introduction of soya to the One example being a comparative analysis of European market in 1996 proved this latter the level of regulation of biotechnology in dif- strategy wrong. ferent countries, published in the hope of influencing the parliament (Fink, 1988). The set The sudden announcement of concrete plans off from this analysis was the notion that bio- of application of gene technology in pharma- technological business in Denmark was im- ceutical production took most parties by sur- peded by the strict regulation, placing Danish prise, probably because the relative secrecy industries in poorer position compared to their had left members of the public as well as foreign competitors. NGOs and other actors on the political arena parties unaware of the advanced stage of the By the late 1980s things started to change. technology. One outcome was that the an- Novo and Nordisk Gentofte merged into Novo nouncements became triggers for the first era Nordisk and went public with the view that of public debate of gene technology in Den- regulation is not necessarily in contradiction mark. Another was that the productions plans to business interests. As such Novo Nordisk themselves became subject to intense public opposed not only many of their Danish broth- attention, forcing both companies to engage ers in arms, but also the continued trend in in a public dialogue at some level. One ex- the European biotech industry arguing that pression of this (new) engagement with the regulation is not in the interest of biotechno- public was pamphlets explaining the essen- logical industries. Defending this view, repre- tials of gene technology and presenting the sentatives of Novo Nordisk argued that there companies interests. Other expressions were is no documentation for alleged reduced com- the organizing or participation in public meet- petitiveness resulting from regulation. Instead ings where Novo and/ or Nordisk Gentofte we the argument was that on the one hand regu- confronted with opposing actors like NGOs or lations provides a known and secure environ- neighbors (Terney, 1986). ment for production and on the other hand that regulation is seen as a means to ensure It seems fair to say that from the starting point public acceptance of biotechnology (Kvist- the dominant business strategy, as ex- gaard, 1996). pressed by Novo and Nordisk Gentofte, was that since gene technology should be treated The shift indicates that to proactive industries, like any other technology, it needed not to be like Novo Nordisk, the public was not only accounted for in any particular way. Just as perceived of in terms of consumers to be the view was that no particular public ac- dealt with on the market, but also as citizens countability was needed industries involved in who have a say, eventually influencing the gene technology, these industries supported political processes and thereby the frames for

Research Report 3 2004

doing business. Hence public accountability Statements about common values and com- became important to businesses like Novo mitments are expressed in the Charter, which Nordisk, who in the following years developed constitutes the basic criteria or framework for a charter and a strategy for their relations to all companies in the Novo Group and their the public and other stakeholders. The re- employees. The question of accountability is mainder of the section shall exemplify this specifically addressed in one of the values in trend where business attempts to handle ‘the the Charter, where it says: ”Each of us shall problem of the public’ in a proactive way out- be accountable – to the company, ourselves side the market by presenting elements of and society – for the quality of our efforts, for Novo Nordisk’s merger between economic contributing to our goals and for developing accountability to the shareholders and this our culture and shared values” (The Novo new broader understanding of accountability. Group, Charter for companies in the Novo Group, no year). Such value commitments The company structure of Novo Nordisk was expand the understanding of what the em- changed in 2000, when the company ployees and the company need to account demerged into Novo Nordisk and No- for, far beyond the traditional economic obli- vozymes. Today the Novo Group comprises gations. While many companies would proba- Novo A/S as the holding company and the bly approve of similar principles, and do their two operating companies Novo Nordisk A/S best to ensure that their sales are not af- (pharmaceutical activities) and Novozymes A/ fected by criticized (that is unaccountable) S (mainly enzyme business). Both are pub- actions, fewer explicitly work with values as licly listed companies with Novo A/S as the The Novo Group attempt to do. controlling shareholder. The annual net turn- over for the Novo group is approx. 26,000 mill The idea that accountability also stretches DKK. Gene technology is the important basis beyond what is of importance for market per- for many of the activities in the Novo Group, formance and production costs, can be illus- but for our purpose Novozymes is the most trated by three commitments included in the interesting, since they cover the use of gene Charter, stressing commitment to be financial technological methods in the production of as well as social and environmental responsi- enzymes and other ingredients for food and ble. Essential parts of these commitments feed production, besides their important pro- include maintenance of openness about prod- duction of technical enzymes for the deter- ucts and processes (to the extent openness gent industries (The following is partly based does not harm competition), and engagement on an interview with Kirsten Stær, No- in dialogue with stakeholders and the ambi- vozymes, 7 February 2003). tion to live up to the International Chamber of Commerce’s Business Charter for Sustain- As it will appear, Novozymes is, however, not able Development as well as the UN declara- totally independent since important frames for tions on Human Rights and Biological Diver- the business concerning values and strate- sity. gies are set up by Novo A/S. These frames are given in the Novo Group Charter, which The maintenance of social and environmental set up values and commitments underlining responsibility is hence important ingredients the importance of the stakeholder dialogue in the construction of the public image of No- and committing the companies to use the tri- vozymes. One important tool to ensure this is ple bottom line reporting for their activities. the so-called triple bottom line accounting system. This system has over the last years

been developed by the companies in the the calculation of the indicator values, No- Novo Group as a tool to measure and control vozymes has in its most recent report in- the performance – and indeed report – not cluded audition of also environmental and only economic aspects, but also environment, social accounts by the same auditors who bioethical and social consequences of their audited the economic accounts. business. The third important tool for Novozymes in The ideas of accounting for environmental their efforts for accountability is the dialogue performance and identify future environ- with the surrounding society. Contrary to mental aims is by no means unique to Novo, most other businesses, relations are not re- but has over the past decade been institution- duced to costumers and contractors in the alized in the public regulation, e.g. requiring production chain, instead all actors who might certain industries to make annual green ac- have an interest are acknowledged as rele- counts (Miljøministeriet, 2002a). By expand- vant stakeholders. Of particular interest in this ing this required task to also include social context are roundtable discussions with issues, the companies in the Novo Group NGOs. Within these discussions NGOs are joins, however, a smaller group of more inno- invited to participate in a dialogues about the vative companies. activities of Novozymes – the idea being that NGO can be a source of inspiration for strate- The basic idea in Novozymes’ environmental gic decisions in the future. report is to describe environmental status based on a number of indicators like con- The importance of accountability for gene sumption of resources, release of wastewater technological firms was demonstrated by the solid waste, the accidental release of GMOs, introduction of the first GM food products to number of animals used for testing and the the Danish market by Monsanto in 1996. total contribution to environmental problems like the depletion of the ozone layer, acidifica- Although the actual presence of GM soya in tion and the global warming. the shipments was marginal (2%), the han- dling of the situation by Monsanto reinforced The social report is made up in a similar way, the public understanding of an multinational identifying a number of indicators for social business attempting to force GM soya upon performance. These social indicators are all reluctant Danes and other Europeans against related to Novozymes as a workplace and their will. By rejecting segregation and only include e.g. the distribution between the two too late being willing to engage in a dialogue sexes in different positions, average age of with the critics and concerned, Monsanto employees as well as the health and safety of helped pave the way for the second era of employees (Novozymes, 2003). controversy over GM foods (Lassen, 2002).

The reporting of social and environmental There is little doubt that the continuous effort performance are both followed by identifica- to ensure and maintain public accountability tion of long term and/or short term aims for by Novo Nordisk in the 1990s and the mem- the indicators, making these reports steering bers of the Novo Group in the last years also instruments in much the same way traditional can be interpreted as a strategy to avoid the accounts are used to make budgets and set involvement in future controversies of similar goals for economic performance. To validate kind. the quality of the selection of indicators and

Research Report 3 2004

That this strategy seems to work is indicated technologies were able to demonstrate its by the results of a survey carried out by the (economical and technical) usefulness in e.g. Union of Engineers in Denmark in 2000, the production of enzymes and other pro- where ethical and moral performance of 4 teins, the public support became substantial. major gene technological companies was ad- The parliamentary adaptation of the first ma- dressed. In this survey Novo Nordisk came in jor biotechnological research and develop- second, only exceeded by Carlsberg, a well- ment programme in 1986 marks the first turn- known contributor of major funding of science ing point in public support of biotechnological and culture for centuries (Institut for Konjunk- research. From 1987 and onwards the public turanalyse, 2000). It is, however, still unsure funding increases in size and follow a set to what extent the strategy will preserve No- strategy. For an overview see the inserted vozymes and other companies in the Novo table. Group as targets of future biotech controversies. It is not surprising that the main interest and focus of public funding in the years after 1987 This will on the one hand depend on their was to advance the natural scientific knowl- ability to maintain the stakeholder dialogue at edge, just as it was in the preceding pro- a level, where critical stakeholders feel that grammes. As an illustrative example the first their participation in the dialogue makes a research programme (Undervisningsministe- difference – if not they may feel tempted to ren, 1986) allocated approximately 480 mill. remove the critique and debate from the rela- DKK over four years expecting a similar pri- tively closed environment of the stakeholder vate funding of the research activities. dialogue and open a more public arena for debate and criticism of gene technological Recognizing that Denmark is too small a activities. On the other hand it will also de- country to cover all aspects of biotechnology, pend on the ability of companies in the Novo the idea was to build capacities in areas Group to develop methods to expand the so- where Danish industry already had a strong cial and ethical indicators in the triple bottom basis. The areas identified by the parliament line accounting system so that they in the fu- included agriculture, food production and con- ture more specifically up take up some of the tained uses – clearly referring to the economi- unquantifiable, particularly moral, concerns cally significant agri-food, pharmaceutical and about gene technology shared by large parts enzyme sectors. The focus of the programme of the public. was partly on the production of PhDs and graduate students and partly on the establishment of a research infrastructure concentrat- The scientific arena: ing efforts in fewer research centers addressing issues like methods and processes, farm In search of publicly animal production, food production, food pro- accountable research duction and the prevention of diseases.

This line was continued in the second re- Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s a search programme (Forskningsrådenes ud- number of national research programmes valg vedr. bioteknologi, 1990), building, as it have supported biotechnological research was said, “on the best of the activities initi- (see Figure 1, p. 53). At first these pro- ated under the former programme” and grammes were minor investments in a poten- (again) emphasizing the importance of the tial technology, but by the mid 1980s, as the 43

private sector, when specifying the important the period until 1996. As described previ- role of businesses in organizing and partici- ously, the critical debate grew alongside the pating in the utilization of the results. As the increasing research and industrial. Reflecting table shows, the consecutive programmes on this criticism, some of the research pro- biotechnology has ensured annual public grammes included aspects of technology as- support of 50-150 mill. DKK for basic re- sessment, safety research and information/ search, education and (industrial) application dialogue. At several occasions the public con- ever since the first programme. cern is directly referred to as a reason for including this perspective in the research pro- This focus of the research must be seen in grammes - as in the description of the second the context of Denmark, lacking rich natural major programme, where it is said: resources apart from the agricultural land (and some North sea fossil fuels), increas- “Considering the anxiety entertained by the ingly dependent on a production of products population concerning if the limits to what is and services with a high content of scientific seen as desirable research are transgressed, knowledge. Hence the importance to the it is important to be open about research and Danish government facilitating a research inform about its methods and results. Further- keeping abreast of the international techno- more continuous assessment of methods and logical development. results is important (…) including broader technology assessments clarifying the im- Consequently the so-called new biotechnol- pacts of the research results on other aspects ogies were visualized as (necessary) means of the social life, including the economy. Fur- to maintain a modern industrial production, as thermore the assessment must include ethi- it is stated by the minister for the environment cal aspects of the research, seen from the in a parliamentary enquiry on biotechnology point of view of the individual, the nature and in general in 1986: “Denmark has excellent the environment in general” (Udvalget Vedrø- possibilities for a position among the leading rende Bioteknologi, 1992). nations in the world [when it comes to utilizing biotechnology], to create a competitive pro- The first major contribution to such technol- duction, to enter new markets and to earn ogy assessment activities were allocated in much needed foreign exchange and good the first programme, but not with the tacit jobs. We can of course not reject this possi- consent of the conservative led minority gov- bility” (Folketinget, 1986). ernment. During the Parliamentary debates of the proposition, the red-green majority forced Supporting biotechnological research has a the government to allocate 20 mill. DKK to natural role in these framings of the issue, information and technology assessment. almost making it a precondition for mainte- Compared to funds for the natural scientific nance of the welfare state. Such arguments research the amount for assessment and in- draw heavily in the construction of biotechnol- formation here, like in other programmes, ogy as an economic necessity and conse- was small, but they did secured the continua- quently almost taking their economic account- tion of assessment activities like those initi- ability for granted: they are indisputable ated by the Technology Council under the sources of wealth and therefore economically Ministry for Industry in 1982, when they sup- accountable. The pure technical and natural ported the Pegasus project carried out at the scientific research was, however, not the only Technical University. aspect of biotechnology that was supported in

Research Report 3 2004

The establishment of the Parliamentary larly true for the GM-food related business Board of Technology in 1986 (once again apparently living a life of its own, only occa- against the will of the government), and the sionally confronting the broader concerns Social Scientific Research Council’s (SSF) raised in e.g. the media. initiation the technology-society initiative, increased the focus on technology assessment Consequently the assessment activities never – including assessment of biotechnology. All really directly influenced the development in all the 1980s was characterized by the de- path taken in the biotechnological research velopment of technology assessment as a and development – indirectly they can, how- method and the accomplishment of a number ever, be judged to have had some impacts on of technology assessment activities dealing the development of the critical discourses in with of different aspects of biotechnology. the society as such first of all in shape of a continuous supply of (new) areas of concern The relative quietness surrounding the bio- but also in securing a base for the critical dis- technological issues in the first half of the course at the universities. 1990s could, as discusses in the previous section, be interpreted as the result of not After the controversy re-appeared in 1996, only the successful establishment of the na- this problem was also addressed in the public tional (and EU) regulation, but also of the car- funding of biotechnological research. This rying out of assessment activities intending to was e.g. stressed in the National Strategy for make biotechnological research and develop- Biotechnological Research from 1998, where ment accountable to the public. it was stated that: “The development of biotechnology must take place in a way that re- As indicated by the quotation from the de- assures the public. This requires that ethical scription of the second research and develop- and legal aspects are systematically as- ment programme, an underlying idea seemed sessed and reviewed through independent to be that the assessment activities should research in close dialogue with the biotechno- run parallel to the biotechnological research logical researchers and relating to the actual in order to utilize the results in the biotechno- research” (Forskningsministeriet, 1998). De- logical research. This interpretation is con- spite these intentions, the national strategy firmed by the call for applications, where pri- did not point to how this closer link between ority was given to projects that assess issues assessment and biotechnological research related to the supported biotechnological re- should be put into praxis. Some suggestions search. were, however present in some of the research programmes in the period after 1996. The re-emergence of the controversy in 1996, must, however, also be seen in the light of First of all the programmes took up the heavy the inability to efficiently connect the assess- focus on basic and applied research but they ment activities and the biotechnological re- also suggested new organizations of the as- search. sessment activities. Within the programme National Staking on Biotechnology running Instead of business adjusting it activities ac- from 1999 until 2002, priority was given to “… counting for the issues (beyond environment interdisciplinary research, as far as possible and health covered by the regulation) raised based on collaboration with biotechnological by the assessments, it continued more or less research groups. The main aim of the activi- as if nothing had happened. This was particu- ties is to produce knowledge and results that

are to the benefit of public authorities and In a survey in 1996, 71% of the asked Danes business activities within the biotechnological tended to agree in the following statement: area” (Forskningsstyrelsen, 1998). Similar “irrespective of the regulation, biotechnolo- lines were laid out in the call from the Ministry gists will do whatever they like” (John Durant for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries for appli- et al., eds, Biotechnology in the public cation in the programme “Biotechnology in sphere, Science Museum, London 1998, Food Research”. Here it was stressed that p.261). A reasonable hypothesis is that this the part of the programme supporting re- extremely low level of accountability partly search into the attitudes and assumptions of can be explained by the unwillingness to let consumers, should establish a dialogue to the social science or humanities seriously influ- biotechnological research projects supported ence the biotechnological research agenda. under the programme (Ministry of Food, Agri- culture and Fisheries op cit, 1997). The civic arena: Partly based on the funds from these latter programmes, a research Centre for Biotech- nongovernmental nology and Risk Assessment (CeBRA) was organizations established. CeBRA was launched in 2000 to perform research into two biotechnological As in most other industrialized countries sig- areas: genetically modified crops and geneti- nificant segments of the Danish public, in the cally modified research animals (See: http:// course of the 1960s and 1970s, expressed www.bioethics.kvl.dk/eindex.htm). concern over the dominant forms of techno-

logical development and their environmental For the first time research into biotechnology “side effects”. In the 1970s, this was primarily as well as public perceptions and ethics tak- related to the development of nuclear tech- ing place at seven major Danish research in- nology and the pollution and waste problems stitutions were joined in the same research associated with industrial production and agri- center. Apart from issuing a newsletter culture (Jamison, 1990). (“Gene-ethics in Praxis”) and arranging joint workshops for the involved projects, it is re- As a result, a number of new environmental quired that a third of the scientific articles organizations came to be established in Den- from each project are result of interdiscipli- mark, and by the 1980s, some of them nary research. The will to go beyond the bio- started to interest themselves in genetic tech- technological research was further demon- nology. As mentioned earlier, it was critical strated as the institutions behind the center scientists who first drew attention to the po- after the end of the ministry funds decided to tential risks and benefits of biotechnology. An support the center for another five years. actual debate did not develop until 1984,

when Novo and Nordisk Gentofte announced The relation between the biological scientists plans to develop gene technology in pharma- and the public constitutes a serious problem ceutical production. for this and other activities to move the biotechnological research in a more accountable As described in the previous sections this direction. Recent research has thus demon- awakened a public debate and concern over strated that there is a significant skepticism pharmaceutical applications but later also GM towards the biotechnological scientific com- foods. Together with the ongoing preparation munity. of the regulation of gene technology, this Research Report 3 2004

opened the way for the development of or- terms of accountability, NOAH played thus an ganized critique in the NGOs. important role in these first years of the controversy. In the following years NOAH became the most important environmental movement or- Firstly NOAH came to be a force stimulating a ganization attempting to represent the con- continuous public debate over gene technol- cerns of the public. NOAH played throughout ogy – in writings and through practical action the 1980s a role as public watchdog, critically NOAH constituted one of the actor groups partaking in the policy processes in relation to demanding accountability beyond the eco- both the development of a national legislative nomical and technical usefulness of GM structure, the EU regulation and the first ap- foods as of other applications of gene tech- plications for industrial production and delib- nology. erate release. Secondly NOAH came to be the critical voice With its decentralized structure and focus on - invited or not - participating in the gene- “counter-expertise” NOAH can be described political processes. As such NOAH was the as a mild form of participatory protest organi- de facto representative of the public in the zation (Diani, 1999). political processes – this does not necessarily mean that NOAH represented the public con- As such NOAHs activities in relation to gene cern, but rather that since there were no other technology in the following years included organized forms of representation, NOAH participation in the political process in relation was the one involved. to the setting up of the regulatory framework and the applications for deliberate release of Thirdly these roles, together with NOAH’s sugar beets. educational strategy also gave them a role in the development of the critique of GM foods Although many proponents of gene technol- in the general public. Not that they alone set ogy were critical of NOAH in these years, the the agenda and provided information, but form of action was by no means radical in the NOAH’s monopoly gave them some impact sense that they broke, or violated any laws. on what was needed of the political process NOAH saw it as its most important task to to make GM foods public accountable. inform the public about these new technologies – and indeed did so by arranging and From the start NOAH, first of all having an participating in many public meetings and identity as an environmental – and to some continuous publication of books and articles extent a consumer - movement, were most (Halkier, 1984, Toft, 1985). active and visible in relation to risk related concerns. During the 1980s NOAH enjoyed a virtual monopoly, when it comes to an organized They did, however, also raise concerns out- critique of biotechnology. None of the other side risks to environment and health and “new social movement” organizations dealing translated e.g. a book dealing with GM foods with consumer, environmental, third world or in a third world perspective, presenting GM other issues where the question of gene tech- foods as a new green revolution (Hobelink, nology was potentially important, were par- 1988) and co-organized a conference on ticular active - and most (if not all) had no pol- gene technology and intellectual property icy about gene technology policy at all. In (ICDA Seeds Campain, 1989).

Although NOAH in this way also voiced the peace been among the most influential and economic critique and some of its aspects of visible NGOs in the area in the years since power, justice and exploitation they never had 1996. the success to move the core of the public debate in the media and political processes In an analysis of public accountability, it is away from the heavy focus on risks clearly however interesting to notice that while the dominating the 1980s. political interpretation of the pressure for accountability moves towards ethical issues As the EU regulation is set up in 1990-91 and (see previous section on the development of implemented in the Danish regulation NOAHs an ethical discourse in the political process), disappeared slowly from the public arena, these dominant NGOs maintained the risk coinciding with a general decline in level of focus of the 1980s. DAF as well as Green- controversy over gene technology in the first peace have identities as environmental half of the 1990s. This left open a space for NGOs and as such they both place their cen- other NGOs, first of all Greenpeace tral focus on the environmental risks. (established in Denmark in 1982) and to some extent Forbrugerrådet (The Consumers At first sight this looks like a sort of tacit divi- Association, FR) and Naturfredningsforenin- sion of labor among the NGOs. Environ- gen (the Society for the Conservation of Na- mental NGOs like Greenpeace and DAF con- ture, DN). centrate on environmental issues, and leave other issues to other organizations, who has Despite this, it was not before 1996/97 follow- this aspects within their resorts. A closer look ing the soya landings and the birth of Dolly, at the NGO landscape and activities demon- that NGOs were visible on the GM food are- strates, however, a rather patchy division of nas again. After the reopening of the contro- labor. versy, a number of organizations joined Greenpeace, FR and DN in taking over after The dimensions that have been referred to as NOAH who now slowly also was building up the discourses of economic concern and cul- again.Most of these new organizations were tural concern, supplementing the concerns small single-issue organizations devoting about the risks, are not fully covered by the their energy combating gene technology. presently active NGOs (Jesper Lassen & An- drew Jamison, “Genetic technologies meet They included e.g. Oplysning om the public. Discourses of concern”, forthcom- Genteknologi (Information about Gene tech- ing in Science Technology and Human Val- nology, OOG) and Organisationen mod ues). gensplejsede fødevarer) (the Organization Against GM foods, OGF). Typically disap- The economic concerns dealing with issues pearing after a short period of activity, or to of profitability and production and raising con- the extent they existed over longer timer, vir- cerns like economic costs/benefits, power tually without any impact on debate or poli- and responsibility is covered by a number of tics. organizations. Exploitation of poorer developing countries is e.g. an issue taken up by the Among the new organizations was however development organization Mellemfolkeligt one, Danmarks Aktive Forbrugere (Active Samvirke (MS) who tend to dominate the GM Consumers in Denmark, DAF) which proved food issues this respect. Wider consumer is- to be viable and has together with Green- sues like concerns about consumers’ right to

Research Report 3 2004

choose on a free market or impacts on food tal absent deep-ecology movement in Den- prices that are typically issues dealt with by mark. On the other hand it is also an expres- the traditional consumers’ organizations. sion of the rather secular traditions in Den- mark, where the church and its organizations What might be termed the discourse of cul- in the latter half of the 20th century, not organ- tural concern, that covers religious and moral ized in a synodic structure, have not involved aspects raising concerns over e.g. ethics or themselves in political matters – hence the a rights, is poorly covered by NGOs. In a round potential religiously rooted critique has also of interviews with some of the most visible had poor conditions. NGO in 2000, none of these took up the issues of naturalness of GM plants or animals. Since 1996 we have therefore had the pecu- Similarly the dominant animal welfare NGO, liar situation in Denmark, that although there Foreningen til Dyrenes Beskyttelse (the Soci- has been a political openness to ethical con- ety for the Protection of Animals, DB) has cerns in the political process, this has only been strikingly silent in relation to GM foods. been partly been filled out by NGOs. To the extent the parliament and public authorities As a result of this utilitarian approach where are not able to make GM foods accountable usefulness is measured against suffering, in the cultural sense by themselves, the fact animal integrity of trespassing limits to nature that there is no organized expression of this seemingly does not play any particular role. discourse, may eventually result in another reduction of the interpretation of the public The overall picture is that Danish NGOs activ- concern and thus failure to make biotechnol- ity in relation to GM foods focus on risks and ogy publicly accountable. At the core of this economic concerns, whereas the cultural problem is the fact that most NGOs active in concerns seem to have been left out. Differ- the area have reached a state in their devel- ent circumstances may explain this situation. opment, where they have detached themselves from their original roots in the public, Firstly it has been of importance that all pow- and live a life of their own, where they do not erful GM-food related NGOs have had their necessarily need to account for their actions core identity as environmental, consumer or and views to the public. other movements dealing with specific issues. As a consequence of this NGO landscape, no strong single issue NGO working with GM References foods and who potentially could take up all three discourses of concern has existed. In- Andersen, Svend, Jørgen Husted & Viggo stead GM food aspect has been taken up as Mortensen, Bioteknologi og etik i den offentli- a side concern to the extent it is included in ge debat - i USA, Tyskland og England, Tek- the interests of the NGO. nologiNævnets Rapporter 1992/2, Teknologi- Nævnet, 1992. Secondly, there is no tradition for taking up such cultural concerns by the movements Arbejdsministeriet, Bekendtgørelse om gen- carrying the critique of food production and teknologi og arbejdsmiljø, 1987. techno-science in general, rather the focus is on risks and economics. In relation to the cul- BioTIK-gruppen, De genteknologiske valg, tural concerns related to nature and unnatu- Erhvervsministeriet, 1997. ralness this is partly a result of the almost to-

The Danish Ministry of Trade and Industry, Det Genteknologiske Råd, Årsberetning The Danish government statement on ethics 1987, Forskningsdirektoratet, 1988. and genetic engineering, The Danish Ministry of Trade and Industry, 2000. Henrik Halkier, Gensplejsning – Genistreger eller streger i regningen, NOAHs Forlag, Aar- Diani, Mario & Paolo Donati, “Organisational hus, 1984. change in Western European environmental groups: A framework for analysis, in: Environ- Hobbelink, Henk, Genteknologi: nyt håb eller mental Politics vol.8(1), 1999, pp. 3-34. falske løfter? Bioteknologi og den tredje ver- dens landbrug, NOAHs forlag, København, Durant, John, Martin W. Bauer & George 1988. Gaskell, (eds), Biotechnology in the public sphere, Science Museum, 1998. ICDA Seeds Campaign, Patenting life forms in Europe – Proceedings, Barcelona, 1989. Fink, Kirsten & Ole Terney, Sådan reguleres genteknologi. Praksis og erfaringer, Forenin- Indenrigsministeriet, Bioteknologi – behov og gen af Bioteknologiske Industrier i Danmark, muligheder. Arbejdsnotat nr. 4. København, 1988. 1985.

Folketinget, Forespørgsel nr. F13, 6. Decem- Indenrigsministeriet, Lov om oprettelse af et ber 1994. etisk råd og regulering af visse biomedicinske forsøg, Lov nr. 353, 1987. Folketinget, Forespørgsel nr. F18, 4. Febru- ary 1986. Indenrigsministeriets Gensplejsningsudvalg, Genteknologi & sikkerhed, Betænkning nr. Folketinget, Forespørgsel nr. F25, 12. De- 1043, Indenrigministeriet, 1985. cember 1986. Indenrigsministeriets Udvalg om Etiske Pro- Folketinget, Forespørgsel nr. F64, 22-23. blemer ved Ægtransplantation, Kunstig Be- May 1997. frugtning og Fosterdiagnostik, Fremskridtets pris, Indenrigsministeriet, 1984. Forskningsministeriet, National delstrategi for bioteknologisk forskning, Forskningsministeri- Institut for Konjunkturanalyse, Danskernes et, 1998. syn på bioteknologi. En analyse af det hold- ningsmæssige landskab over for bioteknologi, Forskningsrådenes Udvalg Vdr. Bioteknologi, Nyhedsmagasinet Ingeniøren, 2000. Det nye program for bioteknologisk forskning og udvikling (opslag), 1990. Jamison, Andrew and Erik Baark, Modes of Biotechnology Assessment in the USA, Ja- Forskningsrådene, Det bioteknologiske forsk- pan and Denmark, in: Technology Analysis nings- og udviklingsprogram 1991-1995, and Strategic Management, 1990 no.2. 1992. Jamison, Andrew, Ron Eyerman, Jacqueline Forskningsstyrelsen, Støtte til bioteknologisk Cramer & Jeppe Læssøe, The making og the forskning. www.forskraad.dk, (assessed 18. new environmental consiousness. A com- dec. 1998), 1998. parative study of the environmental move-

Research Report 3 2004

ments in Sweden, Denmark and the Nether- Projektrapport nr. 1, Center for Bioetik og lands, Edinburgh University Press, Edin- Risikovurdering, 2001. burgh, 1990. Miljøministeriet, Lov om miljø og gen- Jelsøe, Erling, Jesper Lassen, Arne T. teknologi, Lov nr. 288, 1986. Mortensen & Mercy Wambui, Denmark in: John Durant et al., eds, Biotechnology in the Miljøministeriet, Bekendtgørelse om visse Public Sphere, Science Museum, London, listevirksomheders pligt til at udarbejde grønt 1998. regnskab, BEK nr. 594, København, 2002a.

Justitsministeriet, Dyreværnslov, Lov nr. 386 Miljøministeriet, Bekendtgørelse om lov om af 6. juni 1991. miljø og genteknologi, LBK 981, København, 2002b. Kiel, Pauli et al., Interviews med eksperter og repræsentanter for interessegrupper indenfor Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, bioteknologiområdet., 2. del, Projekt Pegasus Biotechnology in Food Research. Invitation of Rapport nr. 5, Danmarks Tekniske Højskole, project applications, 1997. 1984. The Novo Group, Charter for companies in Kvistgaard, Morten, Impact of regulation on the Novo Group, (no year). the development of biotechnology, Environ- mental Project No. 322, Ministry of Environ- Novozymes, The Novozyme report (Account ment and Energy, 1996. and data), http://www.novozymes.com/cgi- bin/bvisapi.dll/ar2002/download.jsp, Lassen, Jesper & Andrew Jamison, Genetic (Assessed 27. February 2003), 2003. technologies meet the public. Discourses of concern, forthcoming in Science Technology Rasmussen, Finn D., Bioteknologi: Te- and Human Values. maraport om det bioteknologiske uddannelsesprogram, COS Forskningsrapport nr.4, Lassen, Jesper, Agnes Allansdottir, Miltos Handelshøjskolen i København, 1990. Liakopoulous, Arne T. Mortensen & Anna Olofsson, Testing times – the reception of Rendtorff, Jacob D. & Peter Kemp, Basic Roundup Ready soya in Europe, in: Bauer & ethical principles in European bioethics and Gaskell, eds, Biotechnology. The Making of a biolaw. Vol.1: Autonomy, dignity, integrety Global Controversy, Cambridge University and vulnerability, 2000. pp.161-70. Press, Cambridge, pp.279-312. Stær, Kirsten, Personal interview with Kirsten Lassen, Jesper, Changing modes of biotech- Stær, Novozymes, 7th February 2003. nology assessment in Denmark, in Miettinen, ed, Biotechnology and public understanding Teknologinævnet, Teknologiske dyr. Indgreb i of science, Publications of the Academy of kønsceller på højerestående dyr. Teknolog- Finland 3/1999, Edita, Helsinki, 1999, pp. 82- inævnets rapporter 1993/1, København, 90. 1993.

Meyer, Gitte & Sandøe, Peter Oplysning og Terney, Ole, Debatten om gensplejsning, Bio- dialog om bioteknologi i forhold til planter, Nyt Forlag, 1986.

Toft, Jesper, Kampen om generne, NOAHs Forlag, 1985.

Toft, Jesper, Genteknologi – konsekvenser for miljøet ved anvendelse af gensplejsede mikroorganismer, NOAHs Forlag, Aarhus, 1985.

Udvalget Vedrørende Bioteknologi, Det bioteknologiske forsknings- og udviklingsprogram 1991-1995, Forskningsrådene, 1992.

Undervisningsministeren, Forlag til folketingsbeslutning om iværksættelse af et bioteknologisk forsknings- og udviklingsprogram, Be- slutningsforslag B44, Undervisningsministeri- et, 1986.

Research Report 3 2004

Figure 1: Major biotechnological research activities in Denmark

Notes:

1. Indenrigsministeriets Gensplejsningsudvalg, Genteknologi og sikkerhed, Betænkning nr. 1043. Kø- benhavn, 1985, p.61. 2. Indenrigsministeriet, Bioteknologi – behov og muligheder, Arbejdsnotat nr. 4. København, 1985. 3. Finn D. Rasmussen, Bioteknologi: Temaraport om det bioteknologiske uddannelsesprogram, COS Forskningsrapport nr. 4, Handelshøjskolen i København, 1990. 4. Undervisningsministeren, Forslag til folketingsbeslutning om iværksættelse af et bioteknologisk forsknings- og udviklingsprogram, Beslutningsforslag B44, Undervisningsministeriet, 1986. 5. Forskningsrådene, Det bioteknologiske forsknings- og udviklingsprogram 1991-1995, 1992 and: Forskningsrådenes Udvalg Vedr. Bioteknologi, Det nye program for bioteknologisk forskning og udvikling (opslag), 1990. 6. Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries programme, Biotechnology in Food Research. Invitation of project applications, 1997. 7. Forskningsstyrelsen, Støtte til bioteknologisk forskning, (www.forskraad.dk), 1998.

Research Report 3 2004

Regional/local transport policy: the Ørestad/Metro project

By Karsten Bruun Hansen and Andrew Jamison Introductory background

The Ørestad/Metro project is an example of a new approach to urban planning that has become popular throughout Europe over the Summary past two decades, according to which cities are seen as sites of “strategic growth”. Ac- The case study deals with the development of cording to this perspective, cities and infra- the Metro light-train project in Copenhagen structural developments are to be seen as and of the new city area, Ørestad, that is to “motors” or driving forces for economic be serviced by the train. The project is de- growth and commercial competitiveness, and scribed as an example of a new approach to public policy thus becomes primarily a matter urban planning, and an illustration of Danish of managing this growth potential by using consensus politics in action. techniques and procedures that are derived from the business world. Public administra- The study relates the historical development tion becomes a form of corporate activity. of the project, how the plans were made in the late 1980s, and briefly traces the process New regional accumulation, or strategic of implementation in the 1990s, focusing on growth, strategies have come to be seen by conservation issues that emerged, as well as many local politicians and public officials as the choice of technology for the Metro sys- providing the basis for urban renewal and re- tem. vitalization in cities that have lost much of their industrial base and industrial work- A number of issues related to public account- places. Urban Development Programmes ability are then discussed in more detail. In (UDP), such as the one that was devised for particular, questions of openness, consulta- the Copenhagen region, became important tion, and cost-accounting are taken up. The instruments of public policy. UDPs involve so- treatment of the project in the media is also called public-private partnership (PPP) rather briefly analyzed. than traditional forms of decision-making: multilevel governance rather than top-down The case is an all too typical example of in- government. adequate procedures of public accountability in relation to large infrastructure projects. In Denmark, these ideas came to be influen- Lack of openness and involvement of rele- tial in policy circles in the course of the vant stakeholders in the decision-making and 1980s, particularly within a political “growth implementation process are striking features coalition” which consisted of leading repre- of the case. sentatives from the Social Democratic, Con- servative and Liberal Parties, the largest parties in the Parliament, together representing

some 70-75 percent of the electorate. As part tralized political decision-making structure of what we have previously termed a consen- and a legally separate sphere of public ad- sual regime of public accountability proce- ministration. The more fluid system of plan- dures, plans for the strategic growth of the ning can instead be seen as part of a more Copenhagen area were formulated by means general shift toward the strengthening of a of a negotiation process among leading politi- more multifarious realm of ”governance”, by cians and officials from these three parties. which public authorities are accountable to different networks and “stakeholders”, and, in Those plans included the bridge across the particular, by which public officials often con- Øresund between Sweden and Denmark, a duct their activities in close relation to busi- new urban area to be located near the Co- ness, without clearly delineated hierarchies. penhagen airport and what would be the bridgehead to Sweden – the so-called In theory, this shift has been conceptualized Ørestad on the island of Amager – and a light as the shift from one or another form of indus- rail connection, the Metro, linking Ørestad to trial, or modern society to something else: the city center. In this case study we recount risk society (Beck), knowledge society the history and discuss issues of public ac- (Stehr), network society (Castells). countability associated with the Ørestad/ Metro project. Whatever it is called in theory, there can be no doubt that in practice, the boundaries be- Urban planning in Denmark had previously, in tween public and private, between politics the 1950s and 1960s - the era of the postwar and administration, have tended to diminish welfare state - been characterized by func- and become increasingly blurred in relation to tionalism and ”goal rationality”: cities were “mega projects” such as the Metro/Ørestad adminstered and projects planned in such a (Flyvbjerg, 2003). Instead, multilevel govern- way that they could serve and contribute to ance and public-private partnerships gain im- the general public welfare. The Danish plan- portance in this new approach to planning. ning system was hierarchical, which meant that municipal planning was under the juris- diction of regional planning authorities and, The decision-making most especially, subject to decisions taken in the national parliament. process

With the coming to power of the Conserva- The specific motivation for the Metro/Ørestad tive/Liberal Government in 1982, and the new project was the need to revitalize the econ- doctrines of strategic urban growth, the plan- omy of the Danish capital city. Like many ning system changed character. What had comparable cities around Europe and North previously been based on bureaucratic forms America, Copenhagen experienced a loss of of administration, with formalized procedures much of its industrial base during the 1970s of accountability, was changed to a more fluid and 1980s: some 50,000 industrial work- form of administration with more informal pro- places had disappeared. When the Parlia- cedures of accountability. ment in 1988 decided to move the Holmen naval base from Copenhagen to Jutland, the The shift can be characterized in terms of a politicians realised that something needed to general weakening of the exercise of be done to generate new growth in the Capi- ”government”, which involves a relatively cen- tal.

Research Report 3 2004

The Liberal Party, which primarily repre- several universities on both sides of the strait, sented Jutland farmers, was eager to move lots of land for shopping malls, hotels and public institutions (such as the naval base), sports facilities, and an extensive and sophis- away from the capital to the provinces ticated infrastructure, especially in terms of (Interview with David Rehling). communication and information technology facilities. To achieve support for their plans, the liberals needed to give something back to the city, The Stallknecht Report called also for a new and, in particular, the parties that represented administrative structure in the capital region, the urban political culture – the conservatives which was necessary since the parliament and Social Democrats (In the initial profile, we had decided to close down the Greater Co- refer to the fact that Denmark is divided into penhagen Council (Hovedstadsrådet, HR), two political cultures, based in the cities and which was a representative body with mem- the countryside, respectively, which provide bers from different county and municipal au- the historical basis for the consolidation of a thorities. This meant that there was no longer consensual regime in decision-making in the a central authority that had overall planning period after the second world war, which has responsibility in the region. A major parlia- strongly influenced public accountability pro- mentary debate in March 1990 highlighted cedures). the capital’s problems.

It was the Social Democrats, in opposition at Both the conservatives and the Social De- the time, that presented the contours of a mocrats stressed the need for growth and compromise plan in the spring of 1989. Only development in Copenhagen, very much in one month later the conservative prime minis- line with the Stallknecht Report. Hence first ter presented his own plan for “Growth and priority was to be given to a fixed connection Progress”, which, somewhat immodestly, was from Zealand to Sweden. To deal with the called by the Government, ”the Plan of the regional policy and development the prime Century.” Both the Social Democrats and the minister set up “The Capital Development Conservatives seemed to agree that some- Council” (Hovedstadens Udviklingsråd, HUR) thing needed to be done for the capital, and as a kind of development company run by so a committee was formed in order to come national politicians (Hansen, 1992, Abild, up with some proposals. 2002).

Infrastructure was given high priority in the The municipality of Copenhagen was not ea- subsequent report (the Stallknecht Report), ger to take part in the development com- submitted in November 1989, and the con- pany’s work, however, perhaps because struction of a bridge to Sweden was seen as there was another committee in operation, especially important. The conservative prime the Würtzen committee, which was to pro- minister Poul Schlüter was supportive of the pose measures for dealing with traffic prob- committee’s idea about a “Nordic Growth lems in the capital region. Centre” around the Øresund strait. However, and perhaps because of the failure The Øresund region (including Copenhagen, of the political development company, a small Malmö and Lund) was seen to have a great group within the Würtzen committee decided growth potential, due to a highly skilled labour for themselves, after the parliamentary de- force, a comparatively clean environment, bate in March 1990, that the questions of

growth, development and innovation, should city officials, who could neither raise funds for be integrated with the committee’s traffic is- traffic or for strategic growth. As one city offi- sues. They formed a partnership of three and cial put it, constructed the Ørestad/Metro project. There’s nothing wrong with the organisation The three, who would become the project se- and financing model for the Ørestad. Now we cretariat, were Anne-Grethe Foss, head of have the Metro that we have needed for so the planning department in the Danish State many years, and without cutting in the public Railways (DSB), Dan Christensen, architect service (Interview with Eskild Tuesen). in the municipality of Copenhagen and Erik Jacobsen, head of the department in the Min- Later it was realised that the Ørestad plan istry of Finance. was similar to a much earlier project idea about the future of West Amager from 1965. They suggested that the money needed for That project had been conceived by architect traffic investments could be raised from the Knud E. Rasmussen, since 1987 head of the sale of land in the area near the bridge if the planning office in the Copenhagen municipal new area in Copenhagen had high-quality government. infrastructure (light-rail). The land would be attractive due to a light rail connection (later: In 1965 K.E. Rasmussen believed in a growth the Metro). The Ørestad was to be built on centre in Copenhagen, and in his opinion Co- Amager, an island in the southern part of Co- penhagen should compete with other cities penhagen, close to the airport, the bridge and like Göteborg, Hamburg and Stockholm. In not far from the inner city. the early 1960s many town planners saw the Øresund region as a potential Nordic Growth There were some problems with their idea. Centre. The Ørestad Plan, as proposed in the For one thing, much of the area had the Würtzen committee, was, according to archi- status of a nature reserve, and the Ørestad tect Arne Gaardmand, more or less a copy of would also be in violation of the regional de- the 1965 plan, which is not so surprising velopment plan, which had not proposed a since Christensen had worked many years for new urban district in the area. But these were Rasmussen (Interview with Arne Gaard- to be only minor problems, due to the fact mand). that the Copenhagen municipality approved of the idea – and because of the elimination Mayors of Copenhagen have had strong feel- of HR, the municipal government became the ings about West Amager, ever since the land responsible authority. was reclaimed from the sea in the 1930s. The present mayor, Jens Kramer Mikkelsen (S) The secretariat constructed this win-win pro- was also keen to the Ørestad idea, which was ject, the Ørestad. If you could supply West said to be tax neutral and bring new prosper- Amager with sufficient quality communica- ity to the Copenhagen area. The same feel- tions, i.e. a high technological Metro, you ings were shared by the prime minister and would be able to sell the land at exorbitant the parliamentary opposition, led by the So- prices (Interview with Ulrik Dahlin). cial Democratic Party leader Svend Auken.

The official launching of the Ørestad project Anne-Grethe Foss chose to keep the plan was the Würtzen committee report, published secret, because of the County’s Social De- in March 1991. It was a popular proposal for mocrats (...) She gets the Minister of Finance,

Research Report 3 2004

Henning Dyremose and Poul Nyrop Rasmus- Gaardmand, violated then current plan- sen [the future Social Democratic prime min- ning procedures. According to Gaard- ister] to make a political agreement, by which mand there was no provision for public the technical aspects of the bridge – 4 track hearings, so that public opinion could be highway and two track railway – are settled. heard, as was required. And there were From this point nothing can be changed. also no alternatives presented for consid- When the political deal is made, it’s beyond the point of no return (Interview with Per Hen- eration, something that was also stipu- riksen). lated in the planning laws. Other planners, both academic and practical, criti- The Ørestad/Metro plans were disclosed in cized the fact that there had been no pub- the newspaper Politiken in February 1991, lic debate in the media, or any attempt to one month before the report was supposed to solicit expert opinion. Among other critics be published. When the report was published at the time was the Danish Society of Ar- the public learned that the other committee chitects, which published a highly critical members were also not aware of the Ørestad report (Danske Arkitekters Landsforbund, plan. Only the three members of the secre- 1991). tariat knew about the plans. The Minister of

Finance, Henning Dyremose, soon became a Everything had been decided in advance (…) spokesman and promoter for the Ørestad Both bridges [across the Great Belt and plan together with the mayor in Copenhagen, across the Øresund] and the Ørestad were Kramer Mikkelsen. decided upon behind closed doors. There Those who speak in favour of a bridge refer were no real public hearings, debate or alter- to the Ørestad, and those who are positive to natives. These plans were drawn up by less the Ørestad plan refer to the bridge. There than 10 leading bureaucrats and politicians have all the time been these peculiar expla- from both sides in the parliament. There was nations, which kept an opposition from taking never openness and transparency in their shape (Interview with Knud Vilby). analyses, reports and explanations, for example why they chose a Metro. All the resolu- The report was published in March 1991 with tions about debate and public hearing periods two minority statements, in which members in the Planning Act, were never maintained, from the City Government expressed their even though the [Social Democratic] Minister unwillingness to take responsibility for the of Finance [in the 1990s] Mogens Lykketoft Ørestad plan. They claimed that it had first and other top politicians claimed that it was been informed by the media, and by the se- the most democratic decision ever made cretariat only four weeks before publication. about a big project, because nothing is more Two days later the prime minister published democratic than Parliament. an article in the daily newspaper, Politiken, in which he proclaimed that ”It’s now time to act, My argument against this was that the Plan- Copenhagen” (Schlüter, 1991). ning Act also applies in big infrastructure projects. The Ørestad is not a single example. Less than two months later, in May 1991 There are lots of other projects undertaken in the a Bill on on the Ørestad was intro- the 1980s and 1990s (…) where you can see the same pattern. I think the politicians don’t duced to the Parliament, which according want the quarrels with the citizens, and in- to the city’s former planning chief, Arne

stead they let the professionals and entrepre- done. He forcefully argued that the Ørestad neurs take over; these things are seen to be plan be put into action. Hence Poul Nyrop much too complicated for ordinary human be- committed himself to the plans about estab- ings (Interview with Arne Gaardmand). lishing a common Ørestad Development Company (ØDC) between the state and the The Ørestad Law was passed in June 1992. municipal governments. The mayor remem- In the first proposal the fixed connection to bers in a newspaper article in 2002 this spe- Sweden was combined with the Ørestad pro- cial evening where the six persons afterwards ject, but some of the Social Democratic Mem- went out to celebrate: bers of Parliament were not convinced about the projects – especially not the Ørestad pro- This is so big ... This is going to be the kick ject. The Liberal Party – in government to- that sends Copenhagen into the future ... This gether with the Conservatives - was unwilling decision is in a category of its own - at a level to allocate new economic resources to the where history is written (Fall Nielsen, 2002). troubled and debt burdened Social Democ- ratic led Copenhagen City Government. The As the Amager resident and future Social De- secretariat in the Würtzen Committee had mocratic Minister of the interior, Karen Jes- offered a win-win solution that would rede- persen said: velop Copenhagen without direct costs for the state. The Ørestad Development Company The government [Conservativs and Liberals) (ØDC) could sell the land at market prices. got the Ørestad and we got the collective The revenues from the sale of attractive land transportation [the Metro] (Abild, 2002). in the Ørestad, due to highly developed infrastructure - comprising a light-rail system - The Copenhagen City Government (owners would be used to build the light-rail trail. Later of 55 per cent of the company) and the Dan- on, the revenues from the light-rail could pay ish state (45 per cent) set up the Ørestad De- back the credits. velopment Cooperation (ØDC) in March 1993. The company was founded on the law The crucial commitment from the Social De- from June 1992, where the Social Democ- mocrats for the Law was first ensured at the ratic, Liberal and Conservative parties voted last moment. In April 1992 Svend Auken was for the proposal in a left-right coalition that deposed as party leader by right wing mem- was opposed by some of the smaller parties, bers in the party, with vice-chairman Poul such as the Christian Democrats and the so- Nyrup Rasmussen becoming the new leader. cialists. Many members, especially in the Copenha- gen region, were sceptical to the new party The economy in stage one was (in 2001 leader and also sceptical to the Ørestad plan, prices) 6.3 billion DKK (10.8 billion for all while the mayor who had supported Auken, three stages). The ØDC finance stage one, was, as we have seen, quite interested in the and the pay back time was estimated to 25 – Ørestad. 30 years.

When the mayor, Kramer Mikkelsen for the The two main tasks for the ØDC were: first time met the new chairman, he told the • To develop and build the Ørestad, a new three leading Social Democrats present that part of Copenhagen, on land on Amager the city needed money, that unemployment • To build and operate a new light-rail sys- was high and that something needed to be tem in Copenhagen

Research Report 3 2004

The rail system should be built in three DN believed in the authorities’ guarantees, stages. This case study is only concerned printed in the Regional Plan of 1989, that Am- with the first stage, the rail system from Nør- ager Commons was to be characterized as report in the middle of Copenhagen to the an area for park and recreation use with con- Ørestad (South western part of Amager) and servation to sustain lake- and marshland ar- to a station in the Northeastern part of Am- eas. DN perceived it as a de facto preserva- ager (Lergravsparken). Stage 1 was officially tion. However, as David Rehling, former di- opened in October 2002 two years behind rector, recounted for us in an interview, other schedule. civil servants from the City Government and the state were in the Würtzen Committee, at The Board of Directors in the ØDC has 6 the same time planning to build on West Am- members; 3 selected by the Ministry of Traffic ager. and 3 from the CopenhagenCity Government. The ØDC should sell 75.000 square metres a He was contacted in February 1991 and told year to investors, and the infrastructure in- about the secret Ørestad plan from a highly- vestments would require an initial outlet of placed friend in the central administration. some 4 billions DKK. Rehling called the journalists who had followed the case, and they checked with their unofficial sources in the parliament and the The implementation government, but nobody had heard anything. Only one journalist accepted to cover the process story, in the newspaper Politiken. After one month, where the Minister of Finance, Hen- The tragedy of the commons ning Dyremose in a television programme, together with Rehling, denied that the authori- One problem related to public accountability ties planned to build on Amager, DN wrote a that emerged in relation to the implementa- letter to the prime minister: tion of the project concerned a piece of land that had interest for conservationists. The In the eighty-year history of DN, we have Danish Society for the Conservation of Na- never before experienced such broken prom- ture (Danmarks Naturfredningsforening: DN) ises. It is not acceptable to nature or to the and the Copenhagen City Council in 1987 Danish population. In a speech the other day had made an agreement about the preserva- the Prime Minister said that; “The democracy tion of Amager Commons, (Amager Fælled), will die in lack of confidence, if there’s no har- an area of West Amager where a part of the mony between the decision-makers on one Ørestad was to be built. DN had up till 1987 side and the populations’ attitudes on the tried to get Amager Commons (Amager other”. In DN we find it difficult to believe that Fælled) included in the general nature preser- the authorities actually will break such a vation regulations, but the authorities claimed promise (The letter was given to us during the that it would be difficult. interview with David Rehling).

They said that they would of course not The prime minister wrote back a few days cheat; if we do we’ll damage the reputation of later telling that: “he had first read about the the Planning Act as a steering instrument plans in the newspaper”. (Interview with David Rehling).

After this DN, and other non-governmental Anne-Grethe Foss wanted opinions on the organizations, made a formal complaint about four winning proposals, but most people the conservation of Amager Commons. Ac- asked why the Metro was placed in the pe- cording to Rehling, the authorities tried to per- riphery of Amager where nobody lived. The suade the Conservation Council to reject the director answered that it could be discussed case, but on June 18, 1992 the Board unani- but not changed. Others had taken these de- mously voted to preserve Amager Commons cisions. Many wondered about the missing from exploitation. information and the secrecy, by which everything was planned in advance (Interview with But Amager Commons had only status as a Arne Gaardmand). conservation area for 18 hours. When on June 19, the Liberal, Conservative and Social The choice of technical solution Democrats in Parliament voted in support of the law proposal on the Ørestad, with a new Why the Minister of Finance chose a Mini- decision where: “all not yet decided (pending) metro, as in the French city Lille, is not clear. conservation cases are rejected”. Hence the authorities made a pro forma appeal to the In 1994 the rail system best suited to Copen- Conservation Council. hagen was to be selected. Of three different systems – trams, light-rail and Metro – the Afterwards DN had a seat in the Ørestad ØDC selected, in accordance with the con- Committee, in order to offer advice the ØDC sultant report (from Carl Bro) the Metro. Ac- in architecture and nature conservation ques- cording to the report the Metro would be the tions, but as the former director tells in 2003: most environmentally friendly, the most economic, and be able to carry the highest num- It was a part of a show to make it look de- ber of passengers and have the fewest acci- mocratic. The Ørestad has been a dividing dents. mark. Before that time it was unthinkable that the authorities could violate Laws in such a The Metro is driverless, and is based on fully blatant way. Ever since (laughs) it has only automatically ATC. This means that the Metro become worse. There have of course always is able to be very punctual – at least 98 per been secret deals, but since 1991 I believe cent of departures will be on time. The Metro that we can talk about ‘brutal parliamenta- is supposed to carry 250.000 persons in 24 rism’. It means that there is no longer an at- hours when all the stages are completed in tempt to involve the public, and that is totally 2006. against the EU commitments when it comes to environmental assessment of plans, pro- According to critics Carl Bro was told to rec- jects and programmes (Interview with David ommend the technologically advanced Metro Rehling). solution. When the secret consultant report, choosing the Metro, was uncovered, it was When the four winning proposals for the realised that the competing tram solution that Ørestad were chosen in November 1994, was discussed in the report was an old fash- models for the proposals were presented in a ioned variant (Interview with Per Henriksen). meeting hall on Amager in January and Feb- ruary 1995. Two citizen meetings were held. I still don’t understand why they chose the They lasted approximately 5½ hours and 35 Metro, the most difficult solution (Interview persons asked questions. with David Rehling).

Research Report 3 2004

According to Per Henriksen, employed at the would cause Ansaldo problems. ATC is to SF (Socialist Party) secretariat in the Parlia- secure that the driverless Metro runs and ment, the ØDC had already chosen the Metro stops properly. COWI argued that the because the technically advanced solution Ansaldo proposal would involve a greater risk “would be the best signal to send to potential and therefore increased expenditures. future companies in the Ørestad”: COWI was also asked to assess the eco- ØDC was to consider the technical solutions. nomic consequences of a delay of the pro- But at the same time they chose to outsource ject, and in COWI’s opinion the conse- very much. I believe that COWI, Carl Bro and quences were substantial. The consultants other consultants, have received fees for determined that Ansaldo would delay the pro- some 1 billions DKK. In this manner they had ject by approximately 27 months, with extra at the same time secured that the experts in costs of over 1 billion DKK. Siemens was ex- Denmark were dependent on further work pected to delay approximately 16 months with from the ØDC (Interview with Per Henriksen). extra costs of 640 million DKK.

The ØDC chose the driverless Metro. The In summer 1996 ØDC initiated contract nego- basis for this choice was unknown for the tiations with Ansaldo, without letting the pub- public. The secret advisory report was only lic know about the consultant assessments of published 3 years after the decision was the two tenders. This first happened a year made. In Per Henriksen’s opinion the argu- and a half later when a television station in ments for rejecting trams and light-rail were February 1998 disclosed the consultant re- not convincing. There are good experiences port. The reason why ØDC picked Ansaldo with trams in France, the Netherlands and might not only have been due to a lower ten- Sweden. In France the Ministry of Traffic rec- der. ommended in 1975 that all the big cities should develop trams instead of building met- The reason to choose a component supplier ros, because of the huge investments re- that had never tried to build a Metro before quired. was probably due to the estimated delay: Ac- cording to a later – classified – COWI note, In the Parliament some members were scep- “The advantage to choose Ansaldo’s bid in- tical of the technically advanced and expen- creased if there were delays in construction.” sive solution. That meant that the final choice If ØDC had known that the construction com- of equipment supplier in 1996 became criti- pany, COMET, which was carrying out the cal. The ØDC had to choose between Sie- tunnel work in the Copenhagen underground, mens and Ansaldo. Siemens’ tender, as dis- could face a delay, then it wouldn’t make closed later, was approximately 500 million such a big difference. more expensive, but was supposedly of a better quality and Ansaldo had never before In spring 1999 the board of directors in ØDC tried to build a Metro. sent a note telling that COMET’s seriously delaying the work would have meant a ten The consultant engineers (COWI) paid atten- times bigger compensation claim if ØDC had tion to this in the confidential report, which chosen Siemens instead of Ansaldo, simply later was disclosed in the press. Central in because Siemens would have come further in this was the ATC system (Automatic Train their work (Dahlin, 2002). Control), security, as, according to COWI,

COWI’s final conclusions just before the con- Ansaldo (...) are clearly behind schedule on tract assignment, describes Ansaldo’s ATC- vital parts, especially when it comes to soft- system as of “inferior quality with high risk”, ware and documentation, which should form but COWI estimates that Ansaldo however the basis for the security approval (...) I am will be able to deliver a fully automatic driver- the first to apologise that the Parliament (…) less system. has been given an unnecessarily positive impression of the status for this part of the The contract with Ansaldo was signed in Oc- Metro. (Abild, 2002). tober 1996 in Copenhagen. In spring 1997 ØDC was called to a meeting in Pittsburgh, Only one day after the publication of the re- USA, where the subsidiary company, Union port there is a change in the ØDC board of Switch & Signal, was going to produce the directors. The head of the planning depart- ATC-system for Copenhagen. In a not public ment in the Ministry of Traffic was removed, summary (account) it is told that the It- and the new member of the ØDC board was platform to the ATC-system had been not employed in the Ministry of Traffic. As a changed. result the responsibility for the project moves somewhat further from the Ministry of Traffic, That means that the system was still under which had taken over responsibility from the development. In the same spring Ansaldo Ministry of Finance in 1996 – 97. Apparently it tried to get approval for the Metro’s concept no longer wanted to have close ties to the big design, but all documents were rejected. But building project. (Interview with Ulrik Dahlin). the public was never told, not even the parliamentary reference group had been told. In August 1997 the members were informed that Public accountability Ansaldo was delayed some six weeks, but director Anne-Grethe Foss added that issues Ansaldo’s delays were decreasing, and that the ØDC counted on quickly being able to Openness counteract the delay. Ulrik Dahlin, a journalist who has followed the In the autumn Ansaldo was approximately 11 project from the outset, has continually em- months behind schedule with the develop- phasized the fact that the decision to build the ment of an ATC-system. Nevertheless the Metro and the Ørestad were made behind Minister of Transport, Sonja Mikkelsen wrote closed doors: in December 1998 that Ansaldo was ”more or less” following schedule. The ØDC construction reminds of many other construction projects which the leading politi- Five months later, after receiving a new cal parties have settled through many years. status report, she admits that her confidence Behind closed doors they make a political has been replaced by an equal amount of settlement. It’s not at all unusual; such a pro- scepticism. Sonja Mikkelsen writes – against ject is organised in a semi-private company, the advice from the Head of the Traffic De- which means that it will not hit the minister if partment – a letter, also mailed to the Parlia- something goes wrong. It’s the same with the mentary Traffic Committee. Here the Minister airport, Post Denmark and the Danish State apologises that: Rail and in many other cases. (Interview with Ulrik Dahlin).

Research Report 3 2004

The planning laws call for more openness, Many citizens apparently gave up in advance. but in the ØDC the public is refused admis- When AMG was created there were approxi- sion, for business reasons. This was suppos- mately 120 members, but by early 2003, edly changed in 1996, when the company there were only a handful active in AMG. claimed to follow the planning laws, but when the journalist Ulrik Dahlin claimed right-of- As Kummerfeldt explains: access to documents both in the Copenha- gen City Government and the ØDC he found The problem with [mayor] Kramer Mikkelsen big differences; he received much more infor- is that he’s wearing too many hats in this mation from the city than from the company. case. He is Lord Mayor, he has a seat in the ØDC board, he’s a member of HUR and he’s But it’s the same as with other big compa- vice chairman in the East Amager Rail Com- nies; they are open in the way they want to pany [the company responsible for the sec- be. That’s quite normal. (Interview with Ulrik ond stage of the Metro]. He is planner, deci- Dahlin). sion maker and complaint board all in one. (Interview with Palle Kummerfeldt). At two public meetings in 1995 the ØDC’s director Anne-Grethe Foss, said, as men- Kramer Mikkelsen concluded one week be- tioned earlier, that the decision about the fore the opening of the Metro in October Ørestad and the Metro could be discussed, 2002, that: but not changed. Many have criticized the lack of public consultation in the projects. The The process has not been open enough. We retired planning director, Arne Gaardmand, have underestimated the public need for influ- says that the ØDC followed the letter in the ence, and the forthcoming metro building planning law but not the intentions (Interview must be more transparent. This is not a critic with Arne Gaardmand). of the Ørestad Development Cooperation, because I’m still convinced that the Metro By this he means that there were instituted building process has been far more open certain formal procedures of accountability, than other big public works projects. But we but that there was almost no effort to develop can improve. (Dahlin, 2002). ways of involving concerned citizens into the planning and implementation of the project. The retired city-planning director, Arne Gaardmand, is more concerned: There has certainly been a lack of public consultation and discussion with those living in This new kind of corporate planning is a the area where the project is being con- threat to our democracy. In corporate exer- structed. As Palle Kummerfeldt, spokesper- cise of power, as seen in the 1990s big infra- son for the Amager Metro Group (AMG) told structure projects, more influence is given to us in an interview: leading politicians, commercial and professional groups, behind closed doors where I think that many people on Amager feels that public hearings and debate become ritualistic things have been going on over our heads, excuses. (Interview with Arne Gaardmand). where everything was dealt with in advance. My impression is that the citizen involvement was just a show. (Interview with Palle Kum- merfeld).

Cost-accounting 10 transportation infrastructure projects, costs are underestimated. There is, as they put it, a The budget in the ØDC has since the begin- “calamitous history of cost overrun”, accord- ning increased four fold. The initial outlay was ing to which the costs of such megaprojects tobe paid back from selling land. The period are systematically underestimated. Underesti- for the payback of credits has been prolonged mation cannot be explained by errors and is from some 11 years to 20 – 22 years (2020), best explained by strategic misrepresenta- and that makes the project potentially more tion, usually for political purposes. The meth- vulnerable to fluctuations in the interest rate. ods of cost estimation that are used in most Recent figures show that the credit limit has mega-projects are simply not based on been reached and that an additional 145 mil- proper accounting methods (Flyvbjerg, 2003). lion Euro has been added to the total credit limit. Benefits

According to Palle Kummefeldt from the AMG The traffic situation has for decades been a group, a retired economist, the operation of major problem for Amager. The Würtzen Re- the Metro will not be profitable: the ØDC has port claimed that the Metro would approve ‘forgotten’ to include costs of depreciation in the traffic situation on Amager. their accounts. That means a deficit of approximately 100 – 200 millions DKK every On Amager we don’t need growth – we al- year when all three stages are completed. ready have problems with the existing traffic. (...) The Ørestad will attract more traffic. Al- The National Audit Office published a critical though they make some traffic investments, report on the ØDC in 2000: they leave others behind. The car traffic will increase, and the problems for the current The ØDC has not provided adequate control inhabitants will grow worse. (Interview with nor proper management information about Knud Vilby). the project’s progress. This had a big influence on the Metro projects delay and cost The local newspaper Amager Bladet (weekly) escalations. has since the Metro opening in October 2002 been full of angry letters to the editor, where it Like many similar projects, the Ørestad/Metro is described how much more time people project has seen its budget increase substan- spent every day in the traffic. The old bus tially in the course of implementation, by lines have been eliminated and replaced by some 5,6 billion DKK, and there has also other busses going to the Metro on the west- been a delay of 2 years in completing the first ern part of the island. More than 1500 local stage of the Metro. This is also due to a lack citizens on Amager have complained to HUR of accountability; that, according to critics like since the opening of the Metro. As a re- the Danish planning professor Bent Flyvbjerg, sponse HUR has set in more busses. too few people are involved in the management of the project. Although ØDC claims that the Metro will be neutral in terms of traffic figures compared to He and his colleagues have investigated 258 earlier many of those expressing their opinion large public infrastructure projects, or in letters to the editor of the local paper do megaprojects, representing different regions not agree. The Ørestad is still far from fin- and historical periods worldwide. In 9 out of ished, and the citizens on Amager will from

Research Report 3 2004

now on have to be transported across the is- a long time ago. Land in the Ørestad is not land in order to fill up the Metro. being sold fast enough and as a result the ØDC cannot provide the needed funds for the The Metro has only been realised to capital- Metro project. In addition the costs of the ise on the Ørestad. On Amager the Metro is Metro were greater than anticipated. It would called the “stage coach across the prairie” retrospectively perhaps have been cheaper to because the Ørestad is still unspoiled nature. construct the Metro with public funds partly (Interview with Knud Vilby). subsidised with revenue from the selling of land. Due to a lack of investors a big shopping centre has been constructed (the Fields Centre). The changes of investments and credits high- This was allowed under the former Social De- light the project’s economic vulnerability. The mocratic Government, when the Minister of plans were based on assumptions that were the Environment made an exception from the more political than practical in nature rules. The construction of such a large shop- (Andersen, 1999). The ØDC construction has ping centre had previously been forbidden. cost a lot, also in terms of public and political According to Vilby, there is a risk that the legitimacy. Fields Centre will lead to the closing of many local shops on the main street, as well as in The Metro/Ørestad in the media the inner city. The Fields Center expects cus- tomers from as far away as Jutland to the As mentioned in the initial profile, newspa- west (ca. 250 km) and from Sweden in the pers in Denmark are highly politicized, with east, and it will presumably increase car traf- Jyllandsposten standing quite close to the fic significantly. Liberal Party, Berlingske Tidende being closely aligned to the Conservative Party, and In 2001 the ØDC should have sold 315.000 Politiken generally supporting the Social De- square meters to private investors. The ØDC mocrtaic Party. have sold 471.000, but only approximately 176.000 to private investors. Of these This means that it has been problematic to 176.000 the Fields Centre bought 146.000 criticize a big project that has been supported square meters. by all the large parties. It is really only the independent, left-wing newspaper, Information, In Knud Vilby’s opinion the Ørestad plan is an which has provided much in the way of critical expression of a blind faith in growth. Business coverage of the project. people and politicians believe that the two big bridges (as well as a third bridge that is in the The Ørestad project was first presented in works to Germany) along with the Ørestad public in Politiken in March 1991, reporting will ensure prosperity for Copenhagen. But that the mayor, Kramer Mikkelsen was trying there are no examples in history, in Denmark to put pressure on the party leader, Svend or anywhere else, that bridges and highways Auken, who was sceptical about a quick deci- bring about growth and economic develop- sion due to reluctance in the party. ment by themselves. An article in Jyllandposten in April 1991 said For the “Growth Coalition” half way through that the Conservative Minister of Finance, the implementation phase of the Ørestad/ Henning Dyremose would summon the Par- Metro, the point of no return has been passed liament to an extra session in August to

achieve broad political support for three major From 1996 to the opening in 2002 all four projects: a fixed connection to Sweden, the newspapers publish more critical articles. But Ørestad and a conversion of the Copenhagen usually not from a ‘public participation’ or harbour. ‘citizen involvement’ perspective: The first editorials appear in late 1998. Typical examples from the first year is as follow: Most critical was Information, which in the (...) this new part of Copenhagen will create leading article ”What is it we want with the thousands of working places and more indus- capital?” writes: try in the capital. (...) In the Government’s law proposal are the traffic investments estimated Investors are not certain where the authorities to approximately 3.9 billions DDK. (Jyllands- want to locate the development (…) is it in the posten, May 7, 1991). harbour? in “Holmen”? (…)or in the Ørestad, where there is constructed a Metro as the The Ørestad project will become a growth only selling point, and nothing else? In the factor to a crisis-stricken capital. The project middle of the political quarrels about interna- will result in 60.000 new working places over tional competition with Hamburg, Stockholm the coming 30 years. (Jyllandsposten, May and only God knows where, there is some- 30, 1991). thing ironic in the fact that we are mostly competing with ourselves in a random and Most of the articles in these years are dealing failed development. (Information, December with the growth perspective. This is due to a 9, 1998). broad consensus that something needs to be done for the capital. There were only few writ- In an editorial in January 1999 the Ørestad ing in the first three or four years from a more project was discussed, after the chairman in critical perspective: A local citizen meeting on the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Peter Amager in the beginning of 1995, arranged Duetoft (from the small Christian Democratic by the ØDC, was only briefly discussed under Party), the day before had claimed that: ”(…) the headline: “The Ørestad director in harsh there is more and more in the Ørestad case headwind”: that is problematic”.

And in the article: The leading article is dealing with the Ørestad Director Anne-Grethe Foss tried unsuccess- project as a case closely related to the Dan- fully to convince the citizens that the ØDC all ish ’province trauma’ or ‘the majority of parlia- ready once had heard the public and mentary members from Jutland’. The Ørestad changed a law proposal (…) Many didn’t be- project is explained as a ’clever’ solution: lieve her, but said that earlier investigations had proved opposite. The citizens talked Fraud was the name. (…) and it also meant about manipulation. (…) The citizens were that the authorities ran away from promise, not satisfied with the fact that the Ørestad they had been giving in this specific area on was placed on earlier beach area (...) The West Amager. (Information January 21, answer from the director was that the building 1999). was allowed on the earlier beach areas, which had never been a area for conservation Politiken writes editorially, much in the same (…) (Berlingske Tidende, January 26, 1995). vein, that it is excellent that the parliament now asks the National Audit Office to deal

Research Report 3 2004

with the financing model in the Ørestad pro- To pay for the Metro, which is supposed to ject. Even so Politiken is much more sympa- strengthen public transportation, the Minister thetoic to the project; the Ørestad is called; is forced to give an exception to the Fields Centre, which will lead to increased numbers the most explicit initiative for the future that of car drivers. Hence: the Metro is paid, but has been made in several decades – not just who’s gonna ride in it? (…)When the Bill from in Copenhagen, but in the whole country. 1991 was passed no one knew that the (Politiken, January 24, 1999). Ørestad should be used to build a mega centre. No, no we were told that it should house Like Politiken most of the newspapers praise the future high technology, knowledge- the growth aspects in the Ørestad/Metro pro- intensive companies and biotechnology (…) ject. The mayors in the rest of Denmark, who were not allowed to build new shopping centres The editorial in Information on May 24 2000 must be following the Ørestad project very criticises under the headline ”The Minister’s closely. (Information, May 24, 2000). exception”, the Minister of the Environment, Svend Auken (S) for allowing the construction A year later Information published an even of a new Mega shopping centre (Fields) in the more sarcastic editorial: Ørestad. Until this exemption there was no possibility to build shopping centre outside Should we laugh or cry? (…) the Ørestad pro- the cities in Denmark. ject would be so comical, if only it weren’t so deeply tragic…The reason for this is that the This rule by decree is due to a reference to; environmental court by a vote of 7 to 3 has “It is important to stop the shop closures. It is decided that the Fields centre is illegal, but important for the urban environment, we must (…)not so illegal that it must be stopped?! All make sure that we have living cities. So that ten members agreed that it was illegal, but Denmark is not only for car drivers, we must only three felt that it would have negative en- protect our old shopping streets”. The edito- vironmental consequences (Information, Feb- rial also reminds the readers that Auken be- ruary 14, 2001). fore the parliamentary election in 1998 had said: Two weeks before the opening in October 2002, an editorial in Politiken proclaims: ”We It’s very difficult for me to see that it should be can’t wait”. The article is very positive: “better possible to build a large shopping centre in late than never”, ”we look forward to exciting the Ørestad, if we are still in government after experiences” and ”beautiful Italian trains”. In the election. (Information, May 24, 2000). the second part of the article there are some critical comments on the financial part of the The Social Democratic Government coalition project (Politiken, October 2, 2002). won the election, and a year and a half later the exception was made. The editorial ex- As in other leading articles it is clear that pub- presses the fear that the Fields Centre will lic accountability aspects are marginal, al- draw costumers from the inner city and from most not existing with the exception of Infor- the local shopping streets. It is the ’crazy’ fi- mation – an exception, as the expression nancing model (in the Ørestad project) that is goes, that proves the rule. to blame:

On the opening day, Jyllandsposten writes that; “with the Metro (…) we have an obvious Conclusions reason to celebrate Copenhagen”. The Metro/Ørestad project is an example of This is a strategic investment (…) which will accountability behind closed doors. Shaped contribute to giving Copenhagen a more in- by a consensual policy “regime” with deep ternational status, which is needed if it’s go- roots in the Danish political culture, it was dif- ing to be a metropolis. It is a milestone in in- ficult for the public to be involved in the for- frastructural terms (…) and will only increase mulation or implementation of the project. the optimism and economic growth our capi- The lack of openness and consultation with tal has experienced in the last couple of the public and with those who are most af- years. (Jyllandsposten, October 19, 2002). fected by the project – the inhabitants of West Amager – well illustrate the modus operandi The same day in Information under the head- of the consensual regime. line, “Metro politics” there is a more critical tone: What is intriguing about the case is how difficult it has been to institute other procedures (…) public investment was not in sight (…) of accountability. Neither the interests in envi- and the Members of Parliament from Jutland ronmentalism that characterized the period of were eager to get money to another Jutland implementation – what we have termed the highway. (…) That was the real background “green accountability regime” in the initial pro- for the secret Ørestad/Metro plan”. file, nor the more recent interest in cost- benefit analysis and cost-accounting that is The land sale on West Amager should, ac- characteristic of the new Liberal Government, cording to the leading article, cover the ex- have been utilized, in any significant degree, penses of the Metro. This is called ‘Magic to the Metro/Ørestad. Due to the political and Metro Politics’ (Information, October 19, perceived economic importance of the pro- 2002). ject, it has simply been impossible for the public to mobilize what might be termed an Berlingske Tidende writes in the leading arti- accountability capacity. There have been no cle – under the headline ”Congratulations”, appropriate contexts that have developed, no that; ”The metro is going to be a success” sites of debate or critique, no hybrid forums and ”(…) incomprehensible that the capital where critical voices could present their opin- has been able to do without a Metro for so ions. There have been a few highly circum- many years”. The editorial, however, finds it scribed hearings, and occasional articles in deplorable that the building project was de- the officially sanctioned critical newspaper, layed two years and the costs increased so Information, but a broad public discussion much (Berlingske Tidende, October 19, has been conspicuous for its absence. 2002). In the end, we are perhaps left to conclude that mega-projects such as the Metro/ Ørestad are unable to be accounted for in a meaningful way without some kind of fundamental change in the political culture, or, for that matter, in the Danish mentality. People know what they could, and even should do,

Research Report 3 2004

but for some deep-seated reasons, they sim- Flyvbjerg, B., et al. (2003) Megaprojects and ply haven’t done those things. They have Risk. An Anatomy of Ambition. Cambridge chosen not to try very hard to make their au- University Press. thorities accountable for the decisions they have made. Fall Nielsen, H. & Flensburg, T. (2002). Fra mark til Metro (From fields to Metro), in Politiken, October 13. References Gaardmand, A. (1991). Et skønmaleri af Abild, L & U Gardel (2002). I sporet af 11 mil- Ørestaden, in Politiken, December 13. liarder (In the track of 11 billions), in Erik Valeur, et al, eds, Magtens bog (The book of Gaardmand, A. (1996). Magt og medløb. Ar- power). Copenhagen: Aschehoug. kitektens forlag Copenhagen.

Andersen, E. (1991). Hvordan Ørestaden Hansen, K. et al. (1992) Ørestaden – løsnin- blev til (How the Ørestad was born) in Infor- gen på Københavns problemer? (The mation, May 4. Ørestad – is it a solution for Copenhagen?) Geografisk Institut. Copenhagen. Baastrup, M. (2002). Stilhedens bro (the Bridge of silence). in Erik Valeur, et al, eds, Hovedstadsrådet (1989). Regionplan 89. Co- Magtens Bog (The book of power). Copenha- penhagen. gen: Aschehoug. Jeppesen, J. (2002). Larsens udsyn (The Dahlin, U (2002). Det førerløse pendul (The chairman in HUR’s outlook). article in Amager driverless pendul), in Information, November Bladet December 10. 19. Lovforslag nr. L. 24. (1991-1992). Lovforslag Danmarks Naturfredningsforening (1991). om Ørestaden (Law on Ørestad). Copenha- Natur og miljø (Nature and the Environment). gen. Copenhagen. Schlüter, P. (1991). Så er det nu, København, Danske Arkitekters Landsforbund et al. in Politiken, March 24. (1991). En faglig kommentar til de aktuelle bestræbelser på at fremme udviklingen i ho- Schultz Lovbibliotek (1991). Lov om Natur- vedstadsområdet. Copenhagen. fredning, nr. 7. Copenhagen.

Engelbrecht, M. (2002). Sporvogne – fremtid- Schultz Lovbibliotek (1992). Lov om naturbe- ens transportmiddel (Trams – transport of the skyttelse, nr. 9. Copenhagen. future), in Ingeniøren, October. Udvalget om Hovedstadsområdets trafikinve- Flyvbjerg, B. (2002) Underestimating Costs in steringer. (1991). Udvalget om Hovedstads- Public Works Projects. Journal of the Ameri- områdets trafikinvesteringer (Würtzen- can Planning Association, Vol. 68, No. 3, udvalget). Copenhagen. Summer.

Vestergaard, A. (2002). Jeg vil have 2’eren tilbage (I want busline no. 2 back again), in Politiken, October 27.

Ørestad Development Corporation (2001). Ørestad – expanding Copenhagen City. ØDC Copenhagen.

Interviews

Ulrik Dahlin, journalist, Information, Septem- ber 27, 2002.

Bo Dybvad and Nina Kampmann, the Ørestad Development Company, May 17, 2002.

Arne Gaardmand, former director of the Plan- ning Board, June 12, 2002 and December 10, 2002.

Per Henriksen, Socialist party parliamentary secretariat, March 21, 2002 and August 15, 2002.

Palle Kummerfeldt, spokesperson for Amager Metro Group, January 8, 2003.

David Rehling, former director of the Danish Society for the Conservation of Nature, Janu- ary 3, 2003.

Eskild Tuesen, director, Copenhagen City Government, May 30, 2002.

Knud Vilby, citizen on Amager and former editor-in-chief, Information.

Research Report 3 2004

Waste management

By Karsten Bruun Hansen and environmental management and policy- Andrew Jamison making, the main responsibility for waste management lies in Denmark with municipal, or local authorities.

The central government, through the Ministry Summary of the Environment, sets the overall "framework" conditions for waste manage- The case study deals with public accountabil- ment, while implementation rests almost en- ity issues connected to household waste tirely with local governmental authorities (The management in the municipality of Copenha- Ministry of the Environment 2001). gen. In relation to what we have previously termed the “green accountability regime” of Waste management was, in the 1990s, one the 1990s, the case study focuses on two lo- of the areas that was central to what we have cal experiments with recycling of household termed in the initial profile the "green ac- waste. These can be seen as examples of countability regime.” In the 1990s, public ac- green accountability in action in the sense countability procedures - and public policy that efforts have been made to involve the making in general - came to be explicitly re- local population in the project, as well as fol- lated to the quest for sustainable develop- low principles of “sustainable development” ment, both in doctrinal and practical terms. by integrating an environmental concern into Characteristic features of the green account- the procedures of waste management. ability regime were the institutionalisation of processes of public participation and stake- The study presents some of the principles of holder involvement, and an emphasis on pre- waste management in Denmark, as well as vention rather than control in relation to spe- the historical development of the projects. cific areas of environmental policy and decision-making. Public accountability issues in this case primarily deal with the processes of participa- A new national waste management plan - tion, and what might be termed the cultural Waste 21 – became law in early 1999. Waste dynamics of participation in the two projects. 21 (the Ministry of the Environment and En- ergy 1999) prescribed new initiatives in order to facilitate a more efficient waste manage- Background ment, especially in regard to source separation. Waste 21 introduced a change of focus In Denmark some 13 millions tons of waste in Danish waste management. Focus had (2000) are produced every year, of which ap- previously been on quantitative objectives, proximately 22% is domestic, or household i.e. waste minimisation and increased recy- waste. A large part of the generated waste is cling. From Waste 21 focus should also be on used for heat and electricity production, with qualitative objectives, in order to reduce envi- a relatively small percentage going to landfill. ronmental impact and increase resource utili- In keeping with the decentralized character of sation in an economically effective manner.

The plan also emphasized the importance of vention, collection and treatment. It is based involving business enterprises and local citi- on a combination of traditional administrative zens in the management solutions. The plan instruments, and various other instruments underpins that also in the future, municipal such as taxes and charges, subsidy schemes governments will be responsible for the de- and agreements. The waste tax is differenti- velopment of new management solutions, in ated so that it is most expensive to landfill order to make them flexible and appropriate waste, cheaper to incinerate it, and tax ex- to local and regional conditions. It is crucial empt to recycle. that waste management solutions be based on the so-called waste hierarchy, meaning Every four years, the local authorities must that recycling has a higher priority than incin- prepare a short-term waste management plan eration and land filling. covering four years, and a long-term plan covering 12 years. The Danish waste model Waste 21 identified the following challenges is the result of a close interplay between EU as being the most important: regulation and national regulation. The EU i. to reduce environmental impact from con- waste regulation policy forms the background taminants, and for waste management in Denmark. In one ii. to ensure better resource recovery. respect Denmark differs from the other Euro- pean countries in that incineration is much According to the general doctrine of sustain- more predominant than landfill. The funda- able development, the main area of effort is mental principle of the model is that waste to separate waste more effectively. The differ- management is a public sector task, thus the ent types, or components, of waste should be local authorities or city councils are responsi- treated separately, insofar that it is economi- ble for the management of all waste in Den- cally possible and environmentally beneficial. mark. This will increase recycling and decrease the problems caused by environmental contami- The established public collection systems nants. The plan calls for a broader public par- with source separation enjoy widespread ticipation of citizens and enterprises in waste public acceptance. It is a municipal task to solutions, in which prevention is one of the ensure that the waste hierarchy is followed, key elements. and to solve the waste problem at the source by introducing cleaner technology, environ- The following eight types, or components, mental management, green accounting and should be separated at the source: similar concepts. As such, waste should not • Organic waste only be perceived as an environmental prob- • Paper and cardboard lem, but also as a resource and source of • Cardboard packaging economic activity (The Ministry of Environ- • PVC ment and Energy 1999 p.40). • Impregnated wood • Waste electrical and electronic equipment Recycling of domestic waste is meant to be • End-of-life vehicles increased considerably. In 1997 there was a • Batteries recycling rate of 15 per cent. The objective in year 2004 is 30 per cent recycling and 70 per The Danish waste management model, which cent incineration of domestic waste. Focus is presented in the Waste 21, is meant to be will be put on increased separation and col- a comprehensive system covering waste pre- lection of glass, paper, plastic and the organic

Research Report 3 2004

fraction of domestic waste. These four waste types cover around 84 per cent of total waste Waste management amounts. in Copenhagen

Visitors and planners from other countries In January 1999 491.082 people lived in the often ask how we get people to separate the municipality of Copenhagen, which is 9,3 per waste. Maybe it’s because the Danish popu- cent of the whole Danish population. From lation is so well educated and enlightened. 1994 there has been a population growth of Compared to other countries we are far 5.1 per cent, and it is expected to increase ahead. (Interview with Merete Kristoffersen). another 6,4 per cent from 1999 to 2012. In 1999 there were a total of 279.300 dwellings The national targets for reuse, incineration (homes) in Copenhagen, and there were and land fill in 2004 are 64 per cent reuse, 24 321.000 workplaces in the municipality with a per cent incineration and 12 per cent land fill. growth rate at 1 per cent every year. It is especially in relation to IT, biotechnology, con- In a report from the Ministry of Environment sultants and public administration that there and Energy to the Parliament in May 2002, it has been a growth rate. Almost 170.000 of is proposed that be considerably more reuse, those who work in Copenhagen live outside more incineration and less land filling to reach the municipality. the targets in 2004 (the Environmental Board 2002). Approximately 21 per cent (1999) of the waste in Copenhagen is household waste. Of approximately 13.000.000 tons of waste in Waste amounts increased from 1996 to 1999 2000, 8.461.000 tons were reused, that is 65 with 4 per cent every year. In 1999 every citi- per cent of the total amounts. This is a rise on zen in the capital produced 439 kilo of waste. 646.000 tons compared to 1999. The total The amounts have slightly increased over ten amount of waste incinerated in 2000 was years up to 1996, remained almost stable, 3.064.000 tons. That is an increase of and been arising again from 1999 (The Mu- 135.000 tons, but the share to incineration is nicipality of Copenhagen 2001). In the mu- unchanged at 24 per cent. The amounts of nicipality of Copenhagen the City Council is land filling were in 2000 1.489.000 tons, the supreme political authority. It has 55 which is an increase of 17.000 tons com- members who are elected for a 4-year term. pared to 1999. Proportionately land fill repre- The City Council lays down the framework for sents 11 per cent of the total amounts. the administration and duties of the seven standing Committees. Each of the standing The overall target (for 2004) in Waste 21 was committees consists of 11 members, one of almost reached in 1999. Year 2000 has whom is a Mayor and the Chairperson of the showed a further shifting between the treat- Committee. ments, hence the share going to reuse is 1 per cent higher compared to the target for The Committees normally decide cases 2004. within their field of responsibility. Overall decisions are, however, still made by the Copen- hagen City Council. The agendas of the meetings are available from the City's libraries, the City Hall Information Centre and before the meetings in the public gallery of the

City Hall. After the meetings, minutes are pre- one of the biggest challenges discussed in pared which are available from libraries and the Plan. According to the Waste Plan the on the Internet. The administrative structure increased waste flow calls for innovative of the City of Copenhagen is based on the thinking and cooperation among producers, one-stop principle so that, as far as possible, distributors, the parliament and all the con- citizens need only contact one administration sumers. Producers must invent new, so- in each specific case. called cleaner technologies and citizens must separate the waste at the source. The Energy, Water and Environment Commit- tee is responsible for waste disposal and re- A specific communication plan, to increase cycling. In year 2000, when a municipal the dialogue with citizens, is being prepared. Waste Plan was passed in the City Council, Communication and dialogue is a special task the committee's Mayor and Chairman was a in relation to “Waste Plan 2004”. A top-down socialist (Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard), representing flow of information is considered insufficient. the Socialist People's Party, which is a party to the left of the Social Democratic Party. To In Copenhagen all collection of refuse and day, after the election in November 2001, the night soil from the citizens is governed by Environmental Mayor is a Social Democrat as “Waste Disposal Company 1898” (R-98), are three other members of eleven. which has been granted the waste concession. It is a non-profit consumer led, self- It was to a large degree the politicians that governing institution/company. wanted an increased citizen involvement. That has meant that we have implemented The R-98 concession, running to 2020, has specific projects, as in Inner Nørrebro and become the focus of some debate, at a time Kgs. Enghave, although it is more expensive. when many public concessions are being We have not wanted to take part in a ‘left- converted to private companies, or to public- right separation of shoes’ – although maybe private partnerships. R-98’s governing au- we have anyway … (Interview with Merete thority is made up of consumer representa- Kristoffersen). tives, i.e. homeowner organisations, the large housing corporations, tenants association, The ongoing waste management plan is the members of the City Council in Copenhagen third waste plan for the Danish capital city. It and the employees of R-98. The Board con- represents a commitment to the EU regula- sists of 12 members, four for the local au- tion, “Waste 21” and the Danish waste man- thorities and two for the employees. agement model. The first waste plan in Co- penhagen was passed in 1990 (“Waste Plan R-98 is interested in new waste projects, but 1993”) and the second in 1998 (“Waste Plan they some times find it hard to work close to- 2000”). The two first plans focused on recy- gether with grass rots: cling of building and construction waste, and by 2000 more than 90 per cent were being We had one of them employed at R-98, but it reused. In 1990 only 10 per cent of building was a chock for him that he had to work so waste was reused. hard, effectively, register so much etc. He stopped. (Interview with Kirsten Henriksen “Waste Plan 2004”, which runs to 2012, high- 2003). lights household waste. The waste flow has increased over the last ten years, and this is

Research Report 3 2004

According to a local chairman in Inner Nøre- the fact that administrative staff and company bro the R-98 company is not particularly sat- employees have taken part in the decisions. isfied with the Nørrebro waste model al- Before I was project leader it was the citizens though they say something else: that decided that they wanted a ‘green Kgs. Enghave’. In the last three years I’ve been The politicians tells R-98 that they must be working very close together with the tenants positive to the Inner Nørrebro project, but boards, and they represent the citizens. Citi- they are not. It’s too troublesome and it’s too zen involvement can be troublesome; they expensive. (Interview with Asbjørn Skytte, work at another speed and they don’t know Chairman in the Renters and Owners Board about how the system works. There are good in Inner Nørrebro 2003). and bad things about public participation, but here in Kgs Enghave it’s the professionals [R- 98] who are in charge. (Interview with Anita Inner Nørrebro and Ringsing).

Kgs. Enghave Inner Nørrebro can be considered more of a bottom-up project and Kgs. Enghave is more Two different parts of Copenhagen have im- a top down project. They represent different plemented projects in relation to waste pre- strategies in relation to citizen participation vention. In Inner Nørrebro and Kgs. Enghave and public accountability in waste projects. have citizens, local businesses and local authorities for some years being separating the In Inner Nørrebro the project was initiated waste at the source. The Waste project in In- from below as well as from the authorities. ner Nørrebro grew out of an urban ecological The KMEK organisation [NGO] has gone building project (BO 90), which was part of through the Mayor, and they have been very the Urban renewal efforts. The waste project skilled to push the right buttons; it has not was, to a large extent, the initiative of local been started from us. [the municipal admini- citizens. stration] That means contrary that we have many bad experiences, where we have been In Inner Nørrebro it was very much the local forced to clean up after some failure local citizens that started the waste project. It had waste projects. I am not saying that it’s im- a starting point in our experiences from BO- possible when all the responsibility lies in the 90 [a so-called urban ecology project in hands of a few local activists, but if one or 1990]. (Interview with Erik Jørgensen). two of them stops or moves to another town, everything can easily be dropped on the floor. The waste project in Kgs. Enghave (meaning: The Inner Nørrebro project has received quite the Kings Garden) is an Agenda 21 project a lot of money, and that’s what lifted them up. and a part of an urban renewal project. The All these projects however make the whole waste project was implemented and led by R- system more expensive, and that’s a big 98 and partly financed by the Ministry of Envi- problem. (Interview with Merete Kristof- ronment. fersen).

Public participation in Kgs. Enghave … yes The two project areas will briefly be pre- …maybe…It has mostly been ‘information’ … sented here in order to understand the differ- we had citizen meetings and tenant board ent contexts and experiences. meetings, but … yes …it has primarily been

In November 2001 31.275 people lived in In- Enghave had to be top down, otherwise ner Nørrebro, and the percentage of foreign- things couldn’t run. The difference between born was 15%. There were 16.669 small Kgs. Enghave and Inner Nørrebro is that it is rental dwellings. The area consists of old much more difficult to make things work, apartment houses inhabited by students and when it’s led from below. In Kgs. Enghave, workers, a number of ethnic restaurants and where R-98 is in front, they are a part of the small shops. The waste project in Inner Nør- whole Copenhagen waste system, and there- rebro comprise approximately 25 per cent fore it is much more dependable. In Inner (approx. 7700), or 29 apartment houses, 300 Nørrebro the system is much more vulner- shops, some schools and other public institu- able. (Interview with Merete Kristoffersen). tions (Danwaste, 2002A). In 2001 15.700 lived in Kgs. Enghave. Kgs. Enghave is an In four years the Inner Nørrebro waste project old working class area with small non-profit raised some 5 million DKK, from different rental apartments. Many retired workers live funds in I.A. the Ministry of Environment for here. The waste project should have com- supporting local waste initiatives. The waste prised 6200 inhabitants but reached about 3 project in Inner Nørrebro is situated – 4000 (Danwaste, 2002B). (organised) at KMEK where Erik Jørgensen is project leader for 6 – 8 project-employees. The waste management project in Inner Nør- rebro started in 1998, and was to a large ex- In Kgs. Enghave the citizens wanted, as a tent based on what we have termed the Dan- part of a renewal project,‘a green Kgs. ish waste management model. The main par- Enghave’. None of the projects was started ticipants in the project are the Copenhagen on behalf of R-98’s initiative. There were so Environmental and Energy Office (KMEK), a many other interesting projects we could local NGO, the City Council and R-98. have cooperated together with instead. In Kgs. Enghave it was just another kind of It was initiated when a local resident, Erik grass root movement; it was the inhabitants Jørgensen, living in Eco 90 (an ecological organisations. That’s the only difference com- apartment house) in 1997 contacted KMEK, pared to Inner Nørrebro. In Kgs. Enghave the which was then working with compost and local residents wanted to take part in waste local waste management. Together they projects, and hence the residents elected made a proposal to the Nørrebro Local Coun- boards supports it very much. I don’t believe cil (not existing any longer), for a project that that the Inner Nørrebro model is better or they called Eco Town 1997-99, which the EU worse. The Kgs. Enghave model is simply LIFE program supported. just best suited for Kgs. Enghave (social apartments). (Interview with Kirsten Henrik- You may say that the difference is that Kgs. sen). Enghave was a top down project and Inner Nørrebro more a bottom-up approach. In Kgs. In Kgs. Enghave the main participants were Enghave it was R-98 that leaded the project, R-98, AKB and 3B (two non-profit building and it was not in a similar way public partici- associations. The project leader from R-98 pation [as Inner Nørrebro]. The strategy in partly had her fee from the Green Fund (the Kgs. Enghave is partly due to another de- Ministry of Environment). It is a local Agenda mography, where the inhabitants are retired 21 project with a starting point in an urban workers and there are not so many activists renewal project, where citizens called for ‘a as in Inner Nørrebro. The project in Kgs. more green Kgs. Enghave’. The project is in

Research Report 3 2004

line with the Governments “Waste 21” from promises. I’ve heard that they are driving the 1998, and “Waste plan 2004” from the Co- organic waste to Holbæk (70 km), and in my penhagen municipal. I spring 2003 tries R-98 opinion the whole idea is then gone. It’s very (Anita Ringsing) to raise money for the 2. disappointed now when the renters finally stage comprising owner partnership flats and have improved. In my opinion the Copenha- owner-occupied apartments, which BE- gen municipal is promising more than they BOERE they expect to become much more want to realise. We, the renters, want to con- difficult (Ringsing 2003). tinue, but I have not heard about a 2. stage, as you are telling me about [information from I can’t explain why, but when we invited to a interview with Anita Ringsing R-98]. citizen meeting in Kgs. Enghave some 200 (Interview with Birget Andreasen, Chairman persons were actually present at the meeting. in a local Renters Board and member of The Renters Boards are very active even ‘Green Steering Group’ in the Kgs. Enghave though its non-profit rental housing. It’s quite waste project). surprising, but none the less a fact. (Interview with Project Leader in R-98, Anita Ringsing Another Chairman from a local Renters Board 2003). has some of the same experiences:

In Kgs. Enghave a high environmental con- In my opinion is it all right to talk about citizen sciousness exists due to the historical fact involvement in the waste project. Apart from that waste from Copenhagen was taken out public participation in the ongoing urban re- here. Maybe the inhabitants in non-profit newal, where the citizens now have estab- rental apartments haven’t a high income, but lished their own Agenda groups, in opposition they got’ time’, and that can be an important’ to the municipal. The municipal has chosen resource’ in local waste projects. Profession- projects ‘with a positive outcome’ instead of als leaded the waste project in Kgs. ‘the traffic topic’ as the inhabitants has given Enghave;R-98, EJENDOMSFUNKTIONÆ- highest priority. The municipal of Copenha- RER, the Renters Boards, myself ETC. The gen has in my opinion not been GEARET to public articipation in Kgs. Enghave has gone citizen involvement this far. through the Renters Boards. We have partly been inspired by the Inner Nørrebro waste The politicians want to improve, but many in- project - as well as from other places. habitants experiences are the opposite. It’s (Interview with Torben Forskov, Local Green the FORVALTNING they are not used to it. Guide in Kgs. Enghave, 2003). They have always been doing that they wanted, and have never asked the citizens. Some of the renters representatives in Kgs. They has just started to learn it. But that is in Enghave are disappointed because parts of general and not a part of the waste project. the waste projects, told to be GENNEMFØRT We have not been in contact with themunici- by R-98, has not been implemented. They pal in the waste project. R-98 – Anita have been very keen about the overall waste Ringsing – hasbeen an important person in project and feel sorry to realise that it has not the citizen involvement in Kgs. Enghave. been possible to realise: (Interview with Harry Ottesen, Chairman in a local Renters Board and member of ‘Green I am very sorry that the source separation Steering Group’ in the Kgs. Enghave waste and BIOGAS project have not succeeded. R- project). 98 have not been able to overcome their

In Inner Nørrebro the renters representatives We have raised some 16 ‘gårdmands- or Boards are also active, and have been im- stillinger’. These employee have the daily portant stakeholders in the decision and im- contact to the inhabitants and makes every plementation phase: thing work. We [KMEK] have published all our results. You can find it on the Internet. I be- The renters are very satisfied with the waste lieve that R-98 feels threatened by the Inner project in our building block. I believe that we Nørrebro waste model. That’s the reason are now approximately 65 – 75 percent who they made their own model in Kgs. Engave. is taking part in the source separation project, It’s a competing top-down model, and they’re but off course some is not so interested, but I trying to shoot us down. I don’t understand have not received any complains. And when why. In Kgs. Enghave it’s the system [R-98] you ask if I can mention some persons who that decides your choices, but we believe, in are critical here in our building block opposition, that citizen participation is a pre- [approximately 300 apartments]. I’m afraid condition for a good result. (Interview with that I can’t find any names. You have to ask Erik Jørgensen 2002). some of our employees. Those who are critical remain apparently silent. (Interview with The consultant firm, Dan Waste Consult has Asbjørn Skytte, Chairman in a building block estimated the costs – for R-98 - in Inner Nør- renters and owners board). rebro to approximately 540 Danish kroner for each citizen. In other municipalities the costs Our renters [in Inner Nørrebro] are generally is expected to be almost the same. The pro- good to separate the waste, but off course ject has been running for four years and the there are also some that aren’t interested, recycling percentage has increased from 17 and they don’t take part in the project. I be- per cent to ca. 35 per cent, compared to the lieve that 3 out of 4 are active, but I have average for Copenhagen as a whole of some never met any critics, they remain apparently 21 per cent (Danwaste 2002A). silent. When you explicitly ask for critics I can think of one or maybe two persons and that is The inhabitants in Kgs. Enghave are very in- due to the fact that I have experienced that terested in source separation. People are they don’t separate their waste. (Interview very interested, even though we have many with Hans Melin, EJENDOMSFUNKTIONÆR retired workers and early retired people. in Inner Nørrebro). Maybe it is conditioned by the fact that we- have used a lot of money on our information In autumn 2001 there were established 72 material. (Interview with Anita Ringsing 2003, local waste stations in 26 apartment houses and CredoConsult 2002). in Inner Nørrebro. It is possible for almost 10.000 citizens to separate their waste in as In winter 2001/2002 the waste project in Kgs. many as 20 different types, or fractions. 16 Enghave was comprising approximately 3500 public institutions are taking part in the waste inhabitants. The citizens can separate their project. There have been established 169 lo- waste in some 8 - 10 different types. The re- cal composting plants, and 32 building asso- cycling percentage has increased from 15 per ciation employees have taken part in an ur- cent to 32 per cent. The Kgs. Enghave model ban ecological training and education pro- is much cheaper for R-98. There should have gram. been established a central composting plant in Kgs. Enghave, but it was never realised. Two local waste stations were planned, but

Research Report 3 2004

are not yet realised. In a consultant report it is have been waiting for a political decision for estimated that the Agenda project in Inner many years. (Interview with Erik Jørgensen). Nørrebro is approximately 3 times more expensive than Kgs. Enghave. This might be In a status report it is stressed that there has caused by the fact that Kgs. Enghave started been a strong commitment from all stake- 1 – 2 years later than Inner Nørrebro, and this holders; politicians, administration, citizens, meant that Kgs.Enghave could learn from the local politicians, employees and the waste Inner Nørrebro’s experiences (Danwaste disposal company R-98 at Inner Nørrebro. 2002B). The report calls for the establishment of a centre, something like an Agenda 21 centre, The Inner Nørrebro has used a lot of money. to coordinate the local waste and environ- It’s the local ILDSJÆL and project employees mental work, which has now been started. It that facilitate the citizen participation and not has not been easy to start recycling proc- the other way round. In such a perspective I esses in Inner Nørrebro. A precondition for a believe that Kgs. Enghave consist of a more successful implementation is information and real citizen participation. Things are dealt with dialogue with the citizens Dan waste 2000A). at board meetings in a democratic way, by democratic elected chaismen. In Kgs. The waste project is being evaluated in 2002 Enghave it was also a local ILDSJÆL, almost in order to communicate the experiences to as in Inner Nørrebro that initiated the waste other interested municipalities in Europe. project. The Nørrebro waste model is very expensive. They are not professional, things If I should draw a conclusion then it would be take a lot of time for grass roots. They work in that I can’t tell if Inner Nørrebro or Kgs. a different way. (Interview with Kirsten Hen- Enghave is the best model which could be riksen R-98 2003). used in other places. I believe that the es- sence in our experiences is that we must According to project leader Erik Jørgensen stress that it requires quite a loss of re- from Inner Nørrebro: sources to make in go.(Interview with Kirsten Henriksen R-98 2003). The material to compare Kgs. Enghave and Inner Nørrebro was not fair, and very much in Public Accountability procedures are a politi- favour for Kgs. Enghave. It made Inner Nør- cal topic (GOAL) in Denmark. It is a tradition rebro look much more expensive than it really for democratic procedures, or public partici- is. In Sweden, where they have succeeded to pation, as the politician claims to keep up make citizens fraction the waste, they are us- (honour). In this waste management case ing much more money than we are. So you from the Copenhagen municipal, have the have to decide - in advance - in political terms Social Democratic Party, the Social Liberal if you want to make citizen involvement in and some Left Winged Parties used a lot of waste projects.It’s correct that we are using money and been giving high priority to waste the existing TAKSTER in our – the renters – project with a high degree of citizen involve- favour; we’re only paying for the rest waste ment, partly to the municipal employees dis- (DAGRENOVATION), and not the different approval. In their opinion are that kind of pro- fractions. But that is what we tell anyone, and jects expensive, the results limited and the it is just as well in order to tell the politicians project process vulnerable due to the fact that that the existing paying system doesn’t en- the projects often lie in the hands of a few courage citizens to separate their waste. We ILDSJÆLE.

None the less must it be concluded that the with such proposals. An example is I.E. that Inner Nørrebro waste project have reached the tender material - to R-98 - is partly made the highest numbers of BEBOERE, and the by R-98 themselves. It is simply not good highest rate of waste separation although enough. (Interview with Erik Jacobsen) Kgs. Enghave have reached almost the percentage of waste separation, but not the The local Copenhagen Committee in DN took same number of BEBOERE. part in the decision process with “Waste Plan 2004”. But the local committee hasn’t good Both waste projects are under pressure from experiences with stakeholder involvement in the dominant societal ‘monetary rationality’. Copenhagen. The Copenhagen municipality Perhaps can Kgs. Enghave be seen as a pro- made a public hearing period, before the law ject leaded more by experts or specialists, or proposal, where the local committee in DN a tendency against a more instrumental top- were asked which proposals they could have. down strategy. But at the other hand, one However: might as well claim that the demand for further dialog has been meet in a rational or In our opinion there wasn’t changed so much pragmatic way in Kgs. Enghave. (to the pro- as a comma in the draft proposal, despite our posed preface: environ discourse.doc). suggestions. In the following hearing phase for “Waste Plan 2004” we made a compre- Experiences from Sweden points at the fact hensive objection; in our opinion Waste Plan that successful citizen involvement assume 2004 wasn’t ambitious enough. They had not (presume) high project costs and a time- involved experiences from Inner Nørrebro consuming process, and this is perhaps the and other places. They did only what they most important experience the administrative wanted to in advance. We are being heard employees are now facing – also in Kgs. because we are supposed to. Sometimes we Enghave, where the implementation process get the impression that some parts of our pro- have shown itself to be much more time- posals are incorporated in the next genera- consuming than first estimated to. tion waste plan. So in a way we have some influence - in a long perspective, but we are often deeply frustrated as citizens and as a Public accountability popular organisation, when we realise that they haven’t changed as much as a comma. issues That is our general perception of hearing phases, of our objections and of our authority In my personal opinion the Copenhagen mu- contact. We have perhaps been heard – as nicipal is too much involved in the waste col- supposed to, but we can’t change anything. lector company (R-98). R-98 is so big that it’s (Interview with Erik Jacobsen). hard to change things. We miss some diversity in their solutions to different places. They An example from the proposal from the Local have only one system and that’s all. As a citi- DN Committee is F.EX: zen in the municipal am I although quite pleased with how things run, but there ought Information is an important aspect of “Waste to be more opportunities, not just in a few 21” and hence in the Copenhagen waste project areas. We [DN] have some concrete plans. Focused and effective information is proposals, inspired from Sweden, but we be- very expensive. … [But] among the Local DN lieve that it’s almost impossible to get through Committees members finds quite a lot of the

Research Report 3 2004

members it hard to separate their waste. We ’mentality’;now we must do things more effec- find that there are an obvious need for more tively. They can’t accept that the waste plan information. Due to the many different sec- costs more money, and then it becomes very tions of the population in Copenhagen must difficult for us to say that we need more information come through many different money. The former Mayor (from the Socialist channels and projects.(The Local DN Com- party) was under the same pressure in the mittee in Copenhagen 2000). 90’s. We know what to do, but we don’t get the money to the projects. It’s not so much The opposition in the City Council (Liberal the Social Democrats, although they as well and Conservative) were not satisfied with want to do thing in as cheap way as possible. “Waste Plan 2004”. In a minority statement in That’s what everybody wants – of course. “Waste Plan 2004” they claims that it is too (Interview with Kirsten Henriksen) ambitious, and that the implementation of its proposals would be too expensive: References The Conservative (C) and the Liberal Party can’t accept the waste plan in it’s present Credoconsult (2002). R-98: Kampagneeffekt form. C and the liberal do not support targets – undersøgelse I Kgs. Enghave (R-98: Ef- about rising the reuse per cent. We don’t fects of the Waste Project in Kgs. Enghave). want ‘reuse-no-matter-what’, only when it’s Credoconsult, Odense. rational in economic terms. (Helle Sjelle (C) & Preben Bille Brahe (the Liberale), quated The Danish Society for the Conservation of from: The municipal of Copenhagen 2001) Nature (DN) (2002). Rom blev ikke bygget på én dag, spørgeskemaundersøgelse af ind- The conditions following this minority state- dragelsen af DN’s lokalkomiteer i den kom- ment in “Waste Plan 2004” has the Waste munale affaldsplanlægning. (Rome wasn’t Disposal Company R-98’s experiences in this Built in One Day, a query on the DN local way: committees participation in municipal waste planning). The Danish Society for the Conser- Now we have planned three local Agenda 21 vation of Nature, Copenhagen. centre in Copenhagen; which is fine, but it has for a long time been very difficult to get Danwaste Consult (2002A). Agenda 21 af- money to project including citizen participa- faldsprojekter I København (Agenda 21 tion, from the politicians – and I don’t believe Waste Projects in Copenhagen). Danwaste that it’s getting easier now. But the Agenda Consult, Copenhagen. Centre has not the needed knowledge about what each apartment house needs or the suf- Danwaste Consult (2002B). Evaluering af af- ficient information about the waste disposal faldsmængder og økonomi vedr. Kgs. Company (R-98). It would have been better if Enghave Agenda 21 affaldsprojekt (Assess we (R-98) could continue to employ local pro- on Waste Amounts and Economy in the ject leaders to facilitate local waste and reuse Agenda 21 Waste Project in Kgs. Enghave). projects. But the politicians claims that we Danwaste Consult, Copenhagen. need to save; we don’t have the money. It’s been in that manner for many years. Conser- The Environmental Board (2002). Review. vative and the Liberal in the municipal has not The Parliament, Copenhagen. the majority, but they do create a certain

Jamison, A. (2001). The Making of Green Forskov, Torben, Local Green Guide Knowledge. Environmental Politics and Cul- (financed by the Copenhagen municipal), tural Transformation. Cambridge University March 3, 2003. Press, Cambridge. Henriksen, Kirsten, Former Head Clerk in the The Local DN Committee in Copenhagen Environmental Office in R-98, February 14, (2000). Høringssvar på Københavns kom- 2003. munes “Forslag til Affaldsplan 2004” (Proposal (HEERING ANSWER) on Jacobsen, Erik, Speaksman in the local com- the “Waste Plan 2004”). The Local DN Com- mittee of DN, February 20, 2003. mittee, Copenhagen. Jørgensen, Erik, Project Leader in KMEK The Ministry of Environment and Energy (NGO) in Inner Nørrebro, August 13, 2002. (1999). Waste 21. The Ministry of Environ- ment and Energy, Copenhagen. Jørgensen, Erik, Project Leader in KMEK (NGO) in Inner Nørrebro, March 4, 2003. The Ministry of Environment (2001). Natur og miljø, udvalgte indikatorer (Nature and the Kristoffersen, Merete, Project Coordinator in Environment, Selected Indicators). The Minis- the Waste Office in the Copenhagen Munici- try of Environment, Copenhagen. pal, November 30, 2002.

The Municipal of Copenhagen (2001). Af- Melin, Hans, employee in a building block, faldsplan 2004 (Waste Plan 2004). The Mu- February 26, 2003. nicipal of Copenhagen, Copenhagen. Ottesen, Harry, Chairman in a local renters R-98 (2001). Grøn affaldsordning I Kongens Board in Kgs. Enghave and the ‘Green Steer- Enghave (Green Waste Separation in Kgs. ing Group’ in the waste project in Kgs. Enghave). R-98, Copenhagen. Enghave, March 19, 2003.

Waste.eionet.eu.int. WasteBase – the data- Ringsing, Anita, Project Leader (in R-98) in base on waste and material flows. The Euro- Kgs. Enghave, January 21, 2003. pean Topic Centre on Waste and Material Flows. Skytte, Asbjørn, apartment renter in Inner Nørrebro (Chairman in building block), March 3, 2003. Interviews

Andersen, Allan, Waste Coordinator in the Danish Society for the Conservation of Na- ture (DN), February 18, 2003.

Andreasen, Birgit, Chairman in a local renters Board in Kgs. Enghave and the ‘Green Steer- ing Group’ in the waste project in Kgs. Enghave, March 4, 2003.

Research Report 3 2004

About the authors

Andrew Jamison Andrew Jamison is docent in theory of science and science and technology policy and, since 1996, professor of technology and society at Aalborg University. He was the coordinator of the EU-funded project, Public Participation and Environmental Science and Technology Policy Op- tions (PESTO) from 1996 to 1999 and a member of the board of the Danish Center for Environ- mental Social Science from 1998 to 2001. He is the author, most recently, of The Making of Green Knowledge. Environmental Politics and Cultural Transformation (Cambridge University Press, 2001).

Terkel Møhl Terkel Møhl studied history at Roskilde University Center and worked at the Danish Board of Technology. During his employment on the PubAcc project, he was based at the Royal Danish University of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences.

Jesper Lassen Jesper Lassen has a PhD from Roskilde University Center and is associate professor of social science at the Royal Danish University of Agricultural and veterinary Sciences. He has worked on several other EU-funded projects, as well as the Danish project, NGOs and Biotechnology Policy.

Karsten Bruun Hansen Karsten Bruun Hansen has a PhD from Aalborg University and is currently employed at the Dan- ish Institute for Forestry and Landscape Research. He has previously been employed at the Dan- ish Institute for Building Research.

Who is responsible for environmental and technological policy in Denmark? And how are those "policy- makers" made accountable to the public for their decisions?

This report attempts to answer these important questions by presenting the Danish contribution to the EU- funded project, Analysing Public Accountability Proce- dures in Europe.

The first chapter presents Danish public accountability procedures and places them in historical perspective. The other chapters are case studies of genetically modified food, transport policy in the Copenhagen area with a focus on the Metro, and local waste management in Copenhagen.