Large Portfolio

Kerstin Åstrand, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Finnish Environment Insti­tute Environmental evaluations are often thought of as a means to induce learning and development in public policy­making. Evaluations of public policies are nevertheless also used for other purposes, such as accountability, negotia­tion and legitimising of certain positions. This presentation examines the role of assessments and evaluations in the formation of the Swedish policy on wolf hunt over time. The presentation is primarily concerned with how the results from assessments and evaluations have been used at central government level. A simple construct of evalua­tion uses is applied on the case.... Read More ››

Peter van Humbeeck, University of Antwerp (UA) and Socio-Economic Council of Flanders (SERV) This presentation deals with the experience and unsolved issues after seven years Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) in Flanders. In addition, it examines RIA at the Belgian federal level and in the Walloon and Brussels Regions. Inter­national benchmark surveys show that the design of the Flemish RIA sys­tem scores well compared to many other jurisdictions. A good design however does not guarantee good quality RIAs or a well performing RIA system. We argue that further modifications of the Flem­ish RIA system are required to cope with five... Read More ››

Kris Bachus, HIVA – KU Leuven; Patrick ten Brink, Institute for European Environmental Pol­icy (IEEP); Frans Oosterhuis, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at VU University Amsterdam Environmentally harmful subsidies (EHS) have been the subject of several international studies in the past decade. The European Commission, the OECD and the G-20 are just a few of the many important international fora and insti­tutions that have shown a rapidly increasing interest in this topic. Nowadays, it is considered to be an important obstacle in the transition towards a low-carbon and a resource efficient economy. Evaluating the environmental and sustainability impact of... Read More ››