Report Governance Context Analysis of all transition regions Work Package 2 - Deliverable 2.3 WP2 “Transition Theory and Knowledge Base” Task 2.2 “Mapping the governance context of transition regions” 2 Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................. 1 2. The common governance context .............................................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 The EU level ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 EU ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ............................................................................................................................................... 3 EU CLIMATE POLICY .............................................................................................................................................................. 4 EU ENERGY POLICY ............................................................................................................................................................... 7 EU REGIONAL POLICY ........................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 The transnational level ..................................................................................................................................................... 13 2.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................................... 16 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................................................ 17 3. The country-specific governance contexts ............................................................................................................................... 20 3.1 The transition region Brighton ............................................................................................................................................. 20 3.1.1 THE BASIC STRUCTURE: THE UK WESTMINSTER MODEL ....................................................................................... 20 3.2.2 THE SUSTAINABILITY-SPECIFIC GOVERNANCE CONTEXT AT THE UK NATIONAL LEVEL ..................................... 24 3.1.3 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................................. 40 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................................................... 42 3.2 The transition region Budapest ........................................................................................................................................... 47 3.2.2 THE BASIC STATE STRUCTURE .................................................................................................................................. 47 3.2.3 THE SUSTAINABILITY SPECIFIC GOVERNANCE CONTEXT....................................................................................... 48 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................................................... 71 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................................................................. 75 3.3 The transition region Dresden ............................................................................................................................................. 76 3.3.1 THE BASIC STRUCTURE: GERMAN FEDERALISM ..................................................................................................... 76 3.3.2 THE SUSTAINABILITY-SPECIFIC GOVERNANCE CONTEXT ...................................................................................... 82 3.3.3 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................................ 107 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................................................. 109 3.4 The transition region Genk ................................................................................................................................................ 113 3.4.1 THE BASIC STATE STRUCTURE: BELGIAN FEDERALISM ........................................................................................ 113 3.4.2 THE SUSTAINABILITY SPECIFIC GOVERNANCE CONTEXT OF BELGIUM .............................................................. 116 3.4.3 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................................ 142 LIST OF INTERVIEWEES ..................................................................................................................................................... 144 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................................................. 144 3.5 The transition region Stockholm ........................................................................................................................................ 149 3.5.1 THE BASIC STRUCTURE ........................................................................................................................................... 149 3.5.2 NATIONAL LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE .............................................................................................. 150 3.5.3 SUB-NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE – STOCKHOLM COUNTY........................................................ 161 3.5.3 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................................ 168 APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................................................................... 170 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................................................. 171 4. Closing remarks ...................................................................................................................................................................... 176 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................................................. 180 3 Report 1. Introduction As the ARTS research project explores how local transition initiatives can accelerate sustainability transitions in their city-regions, this report concentrates on the embeddedness of these city-regions in a multilevel governance context. This context includes the EU, transnational, national as well as subnational governance level. It especially illustrates the relationship between these governance levels and the city-regions to identify potential drivers and barriers to the acceleration of local sustainability transitions. The report provides a mapping of these governance contexts, outlining the common European and the country-specific institutional and planning settings, policy visions and objectives as well as particular programmes and projects. In doing so, it follows the notion of governance in contrast to the traditional understanding of government. The term governance developed in social sciences to denote a shifting balance between hierarchical and network forms of political steering and between vertical and horizontal flows of authority (Rosenau 2004, 36). This has been accompanied by an expansion of the agents exercising political authority from public-state agents to private-societal agents as well as a transformation of the structures of governing from formal, hierarchical to informal and horizontal (ibid.). Peters and Pierre summarise this change from government to governance as follows: “… multi-level governance is assumed to differ from traditional intergovernmental relationships in four respects: it is focused on systems of governance involving transnational, national and subnational institutions and actors; it highlights negotiations and networks, not constitutions and other legal frameworks, as the defining feature of institutional relationships; it emphasizes the role of satellite organizations, such as NGOs and agencies, which are not formally part of the governmental framework; and, it makes no normative pre-judgements about a logical order between different institutional tiers.” (Peters and Pierre 2004, 77) In line with this understanding of governance, the report covers the development of both state policy and societal movements and organizations in urban environmental policy. It also sheds light on the vertical and horizontal dynamics between these governance levels. EU environmental policy has led to an