Environmental Information and the Participation of Formez to the Seville Conference

18/04/2007 - The need to strengthen PA capacity building on environmental protection and the conscious participation of citizens in the decision-making processes especially in the environmental and urban fields, has grown. The improved listening ability of the institutions, improved access to information through the use of new technologies, planned exchange between institutions, stakeholders and citizens, are the priorities of a new concept of governance for urban sustainability. These are the priority themes to be faced in the round table "Environmental information for citizen’s participation and urban governance. What is the role and the functions of public authorities? And how to support them?" coordinated by Formez during the meetings promoted by the Italian A21L Coordination at the fifth European Conference for Sustainable Cities which was held from March 21st to 24th in Seville. Among the participants who showed great interest, were the Departments of Environmental Policies and Economic Policies of the Municipality of Rome, APAT, ARPA Toscana, A21 Province of Livorno, Provincial Council of Salerno, Regional Network Local A21 of Abruzzo, the Department for the Environment of the Municipality of Lucca, Municipality of Rosignano, Municipality of Palermo, A21 of the Province of Malaga (Spain). On the basis of the know how developed over the many years of training and assistance to the PA through the projects “Network of the Rome Municipalities for A21L” and “Elios” on the sustainable public services which were presented in Seville where great interest was showed in these themes, Formez re-launched the debate by highlighting the importance of improving the performance of public entities in a field which has not been yet clearly defined on the institutional level with reference to a strongly increasing but confused demand. So far, environmental information has acquired importance in Italy regarding environmental emergencies in the case of environmental conflicts where the public administrations involved have always lacked in authoritativeness and the capacity to efficiently and systematically diffuse certified data. Thus, with regard to the decisive European commitment in increasing public information in order to encourage participation and sharing of policies for the citizens, the interventions emphasized the substantial inadequacy of the Italian administrative systems in such a complex field and the need for initiatives and programmes of support to public bodies in their new and difficult task as promoters of the environmental information, which is a sector to which Formez can give a valid contribution.

*Head of the projects Elios and Network of Municipalities