The Strengths and Limits of New Forms of EU Governance: The Cases of Mainstreaming and Impact Assessment in EU Public Health and Sustainable Development Policy

Abstract

Since the mid‐1990s, the EU has been experimenting with a variety of new forms of EU governance, including mainstreaming and impact assessment. Though originating in gender policy at the EU level, mainstreaming and impact assessments strategies subsequently spread to other social policies and more recently public health and sustainable development policy. However, the spread of these strategies has not been uncontested or unproblematic, generating problems of bureaucratic overload and costs and competition between policy areas. Using primary and secondary sources and recent interviews with European non‐governmental organisations and Commission elites, this article will examine and compare recent developments in the mainstreaming of EU health and sustainable development policy and compare the histories of and debates surrounding these developments. Through this comparison this article will expose new insights into current developments in both policy fields and contribute to the debate on mainstreaming and impact assessment strategies as new forms of EU governance.

Key Words:

• Impact assessments
• mainstreaming
• public health policy
• sustainable development

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the panel ‘The Europeanisation of Sustainable Development Policy’, 38^th UACES Annual Conference, Edinburgh, UK, 1–3 September 2008. We would like to thank all those people who commented upon earlier drafts, especially Jenny Fairbrass and three anonymous referees.

Notes

1. See: Speech of Neelie Kroes, Member of the European Commission in charge of Competition Policy, 21 June 2005, http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/05/368&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&&guiLanguage=en (accessed 15 June 2009)

2. Despite the creation of this new DG within the Commission, most of the staff, 610 out of 700, were focused on consumer protection rather than health issues (Duncan 2002).

3. See: New Community Health Strategy, http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/cha/c11563.htm (accessed 15 June 2009)

4. See: New Community Health Strategy, http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/cha/c11563.htm (accessed 15 June 2009)

5. The difference between a HIA and HSIA is that the HIA looks at the impact of a policy on the health of individuals or groups while HSIAs examine the policy impact on health systems (hospitals, healthcare staff, etc.). See the Commission’s HSIA on‐line tool: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_overview/co_operation/high_level/index_en.htm (accessed 15 June 2009)

6. Ståhl, T, Wismar, M., Ollila, E., Lahtinen, E., and Leppo, K., eds. 2006. Health in All Policies: Prospects and Potentials. Finland: Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

7. Wismar, M., Blau, J., Ernst, K., and Figueras, J., eds. 2007. The Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessment: Scope and Limitations of Supporting Decision‐making in Europe. World Health Organization.

8. Although this position of the assessor as impartial is strongly disputed by others who argue that the assessor should be an advocate for public health in general. See: Scott‐Samuel and O’Keefe (2007).

9. See: A CAP on Health? The Impact of the EU Common Agricultural Policy on Public Health, http://www.epha.org/IMG/pdf/CAP_2007.pdf (accessed 15 June 2009)

10. Tobacco legislation involved the CAP (subsidies for EU tobacco farmers), development policy (tobacco sales to developing countries), media policy (constraints on tobacco advertising), tax and competition policy (tax on tobacco) and consumer safety.

11. The EU tends to view sustainable development as per the WCED definition: ‘development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987).

12. See: http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/06/st10/st10917.en06.pdf (accessed 15 June 2009)

13. For full text of EU SDS see COM(2001)264 final, http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/06/st10/st10917.en06.pdf (accessed 15 June 2009).

14. See: European Commission, Integrating environmental considerations into other policy areas‐ a stocktaking of the Cardiff process COM(2004) 394 final and Progress on EU Sustainable Development Strategy Final Report 2008.