Interest representation in the EU: an open and structured dialogue?

Since 1992, the European Commission has sought to build ‘An Open and Structured Dialogue’ with interest groups, and since 2001 a broader ‘Dialogue with Civil Society’. A core feature of this dialogue involves instruments of transparency, and pluralism, with funding to ensure the presence of a wide range of voices. Consultation procedures provide for a ‘marketplace of ideas’ which simulate political competition and contestation, with a ‘voice but not a vote’, and which are supposed to provide for answerability by the European Commission for its policy choices. The European Commission also selects its allies to support its regulatory proposals, with NGOs frequent allies as well as firms and business sectors supporting higher standards. The EU’s fragmented decision-making system helps to provide a naturally pluralist environment, although some recent research suggests that NGOs are more likely to be successful in securing their policy goals than business organizations. NGOs work mostly in coalitions, with the size of coalition a factor in lobbying success. The saliency of issues is another substantial feature of variation in lobbying success and where NGOs can raise the contention of issues they can bring wider participation in EU issues

Social movements, the European crisis, and EU political opportunities

Social movements in the wake of the financial crisis have shifted from the counter-summits and world social forums of the global justice movement to the camps of the anti-austerity mobilizations, and from a clear focus on building ‘another Europe’ to more domestically embedded issues. Among other reasons, this turn away from the EU can be linked to contracting political opportunities for social justice movements at the European level. This article addresses the closure of opportunities at the EU level for the work of social movement groups campaigning on specific EU policies. We reflect on the complexity of the EU’s political opportunity structure prior to the financial crisis, before examining changes to the EU’s architecture effected through responses to the crises and outlining arguments on how EU level opportunities around socio-economic issues in particular have shrunk as a result. We then show how the perception of other political opportunities at the EU level is affected by the austerity response by drawing on campaigns that sought to exploit new opportunities included in the Lisbon Treaty and designed to increase citizens’ input. Opportunities introduced by changes made in the Lisbon Treaty are perceived through the prism of contracted opportunities flowing from power shifts caused by the response to the financial crisis

Beyond technology: A research agenda for social sciences and humanities research on renewable energy in Europe

This article enriches the existing literature on the importance and role of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in renewable energy sources research by providing a novel approach to instigating the future research agenda in this field. Employing a series of in-depth interviews, deliberative focus group workshops and a systematic horizon scanning process, which utilised the expert knowledge of 85 researchers from the field with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and expertise, the paper develops a set of 100 priority questions for future research within SSH scholarship on renewable energy sources. These questions were aggregated into four main directions: (i) deep transformations and connections to the broader economic system (i.e. radical ways of (re)arranging socio-technical, political and economic relations), (ii) cultural and geographical diversity (i.e. contextual cultural, historical, political and socio-economic factors influencing citizen support for energy transitions), (iii) complexifying energy governance (i.e. understanding energy systems from a systems dynamics perspective) and (iv) shifting from instrumental acceptance to value-based objectives (i.e. public support for energy transitions as a normative notion linked to trust-building and citizen engagement). While this agenda is not intended to be—and cannot be—exhaustive or exclusive, we argue that it advances the understanding of SSH research on renewable energy sources and may have important value in the prioritisation of SSH themes needed to enrich dialogues between policymakers, funding institutions and researchers. SSH scholarship should not be treated as instrumental to other research on renewable energy but as intrinsic and of the same hierarchical importance.acceptedVersio

How can the stigma of public transport as the ‘poor man’s vehicle’ be overcome to enhance sustainability and climate change mitigation?

Natural Resources Forum, a United Nations Sustainable Development Journal is running a special series over the 2009-2011 period on themes to be considered by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in its 18th and 19th sessions: chemicals, mining, sustainable consumption and production, transport and waste management. In this issue, experts address the question: “How can the stigma of public transport as the ‘poor man’s vehicle’ be overcome to enhance sustainability and climate change mitigation?

Express coaches - the story behind a public transport success

Despite huge subsidies, considerable efforts and general goodwill, there is ample evidence that public transport market shares are in decline throughout Europe. Our paper studies a public transport niche which has experienced the opposite: despite political opposition, legal barriers and lack of financial support, express coaches have forced their way towards their current successful standing, in a de facto deregulated market. Major issues in the early years were, i.a., strict regulations of entry, including extensive ‘needs tests’, opposition from railways and so on. Today, the winds have changed and the dispute is about the degree of competition in this new market, which is a sign of how successful the innovations have been. Another main challenge facing the coach industry is the effects of the new driving and rest time regulation (Regulation (EC) No. 561/2006). The study object is the Norwegian Coach market, but with extensive references to parallel, but different developments in Sweden, Denmark, the UK, and several other countries. The social impact of coaches is impressive. We find that local governments depend to an increasing degree on coach services in order to fulfil their service obligations (school transport etc). Using the Norwegian National Transport Model, we estimate the net benefit provided by the coach industry. We find that coaches contribute to a welfare gain equivalent to €200m a year, or nearly €3bn over 25 years. To grasp the magnitude, this is equal to the net benefit of the entire public transport investments laid down in the National Transport Plan for the ten-year period 2010-2019. Finally, our paper summarises success factors, which include market orientation, innovation, cooperation and a strong determination to overcome legal barriers. There is considerable transferability of the coach industry’s experiences and achievements to countries in their early stages of deregulation and indeed to local public transport in general

Benefit of measures for universal design in public transport

Measures implemented in order to improve accessibility of public transport does not only help people with disabilities, but increase the ease and attractiveness of public transport. This paper investigates how the average passenger appreciates improvements made in the public transport system. Based on focus groups and extensive surveys the paper will show whether passengers recognise improvements. If they do so have the measures had any effect on how much they travel by public transport? Do they view such measures as a general quality improvement or as special accommodations only for those with special needs? The paper will also shed light on whether and how different groups of people think differently about this. By definition, universal design is the creation of products and environments meant to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialisation. This is a very ambitious goal, and a more pragmatic approach allows for special arrangements too (e.g. when the costs of universal solutions are too high or because of cultural heritage). It is recognised that benefits of measures introduced in order to improve accessibility for people with special needs also have benefits for all. In the public transport sector operators report that low-floor buses and high standard stops which allow for wheelchair access enable faster and easier boarding and alighting for all passengers. How does the average passenger appreciate improvements made in the public transport system? Do the passengers recognise improvements at all? If they recognise the improvements, have the measures had any effect on how much they travel by public transport? Do they view such measures as a general quality improvement? Or do they regard them as special accommodations only for those with special needs? Do different groups of people think differently about this? We have conducted extensive surveys on public transport routes and terminals/stops that have been upgraded according to the principles of universal design. The approach includes a number of focus group interviews and on-board surveys in three cities. We have asked passengers how they interpret measures for universal design in public transport, the degree of awareness of such measures and how they affect their mode choice. A very basic finding, but one with important implications for survey design related to accessibility for all, is the fact that the general traveller does not understand the terminology commonly used by planners and researchers (e.g. “universal design”, real time information”, and “tactile paving”). This becomes clear in focus groups. Failure to understand this can lead the researcher to misinterpret answers to written surveys. Our paper shows how different groups of passengers phrase and interpret photos of measures for universal design very differently. In general, passengers appreciate universal design measures both as schemes fitted to improve accessibility for passengers with special needs, but also as a general standard upgrade. A simple example of this is the low-floor bus, which clearly improves the bus trip for all – and not only wheelchair users. A more important finding, however, is that specific investments, e.g. for blind people, like Braille writing or tactile paving are not only seen as aid for the blind but are also regarded as a quality factor. For bus services, which in many cases struggle with poor image, universal design measures will not only improve accessibility for passengers with special needs, but also lift the bus’ image. Measures to improve accessibility of public transport, therefore, not only help people with disabilities, but increase the ease and attractiveness of public transport. This again impacts on patronage. Finally, the paper sums up the evidence and point at important policy implications for future developments in universal design of public transport systems

Employment protection regulations in local public transport: how do they affect production efficiency and competition?

Employment protection in local public transport raises crucial questions in a period of changing regimes of how transport services are purchased by the government. Traditionally the government either produced passenger services itself or negotiated with private businesses. However, competitive tendering is increasingly introduced in European countries. This occasions much debate, as many – especially labour unions – argue that competitive tendering worsens working conditions. They are of the opinion that employees pay for the increased production efficiency gained through competitive tendering, as “slack” is reduced and employment relations become unstable. On this background there is a debate going on in Norway on how to regulate employment protection in the event of competitive tendering processes in local public transport. One alternative is to give the workers the same rights when competitive tendering is carried out, as they would have had in the events of transfer of an undertaking. This is practised in the capital areas of Denmark and Sweden and introduced in one Norwegian region. In a report by the Institute of Transport Economics (Osland/Leiren 2006), we map the expected results of franchising on employment relations which refer to employment protection, wages and pensions, working time, qualification requirements, and workers’ participation. We conclude that franchising is most crucial to employment protection. We suggest alternative ways of limiting this effect. One of the alternatives is to adopt employees’ rights in the events of transfer of an undertaking. However, the effects of such a regulation may vary according to different factors such as whether the employees have already been through a process of competitive tendering. We propose to map such factors and discuss the extent of how the regulation may affect employment relations. Moreover, we ask the question: How will the regulation affect other areas such as competition, production costs and administrative costs? Does the regulation cause unwanted risks for the Public Transport Administration and bus companies, thereby rising costs and distortion of competition

Silos as barriers to public sector climate adaptation and preparedness: insights from road closures in Norway

Organisational perspectives propose that structural arrangements affect policy outcomes. Drawing on these perspectives, it is worthwhile to find out whether and how disagreements among public authorities create barriers to public sector adaptation and preparedness. As the literature on weather vulnerabilities and climate adaptation recommends increased public sector coordination, exploring the possibilities of governance can contribute to the improvement of lifeline conditions. Insights from a Norwegian case study suggest that the different mandates of responsible public authorities sometimes clash. Such clashes limit the abilities to sustain welfare and business conditions when avalanches and blizzards cause highway outages. The findings also show that governance might only partly improve public sector peril response measures, as there is rarely sufficient flexibility to consider specific interests or preferences, for example, to keep a highway open until a school bus or a freight delivery has passed