Governance and Environment in Western Europe: Politics, Policy and Administration by Kenneth Hanf & Alf-Inge Jansen

Author:Kenneth Hanf & Alf-Inge Jansen [Hanf, Kenneth & Jansen, Alf-Inge]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Human Geography, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781317879169
Google: SFsSBAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 22831064
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

Environmental administration and management

The Netherlands consists of 12 provinces, each divided into municipalities, of which there are roughly 530. Another administrative actor within the provinces are the water boards, which are responsible for surface water management. There are about 100 of these water boards. Environmental policy for the country as a whole is drawn up and implemented by the national government. Within the framework set by national policy, environmental planning and regulation is also carried out at the level of the provinces, municipalities and water boards within their respective jurisdictions.

Initially, environmental regulation was exclusively the responsibility of local authorities. For a long time the municipality remained the only government body involved in the issuing and monitoring of licenses. The environmental laws introduced in the 1970s also gave the provinces important implementation tasks. Provinces now also have license issuing powers, namely in those cases involving complex, technically complicated and potentially highly polluting companies. For its part, the national government primarily concentrates on general nation-wide legislation and regulations as well as on the planning of national environmental policy, including the setting of targets and standards. As Bressers and Plattenburg point out, this does not mean that the '...national government carries sole responsibility for determining the environmental policy which municipalities and provinces are subsequently obliged to implement' (1995:8). On the contrary, within the general framework defined by national policy decisions, these governments are authorised to conduct their own environmental policy planning. Indeed, when it comes to environmental policy, they enjoy autonomous status, for the environmental plans made at the various governmental levels do not stand in any hierarchical relation. Whatever vertical fine-tuning that is needed between the levels must, in principle, be achieved, in practice, by means of consultation, exchange of information and, ultimately, voluntary agreements. Should this fail, however, both national and provincial governments have formal instruments to 'insist' on vertical co-ordination.

At the national level, responsibility for environmental issues is shared among a number of ministries. The term 'environment' apparently made its first official appearance in the Netherlands in 1962, when the Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health set up a Public Health Inspectorate with responsibility for environmental protection as well. However, it was not until 1971 that environmental protection was formally institutionalised as a national government task in the form of a Directorate General (DG) for Environmental Hygiene. This unit was initially located in the then newly created Ministry of Public Health and Environmental Hygiene, after having had a more modest existence as a division within the Ministry of Social Affairs and Public Health. Initially, this DG was allocated very limited resources. But as environmental problems gained in urgency and the workload of the DG increased, the allocation of financial and human resources steadily increased in the period 1972 to 1982. At that point in time, the tasks of environmental protection were transferred to the new Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment (HPPE), that is the ME. Within this ministry the DG for environmental management is responsible for general

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