INEM Chairman Invited to Support Peer Review Team for Dutch Sustainability Strategy

Mr. Pieter van Geel, Minister of the Environment, and Ms. Agnes van Ardenne, Minister for Development Coordination, invited Ludwig Karg, Chairman of INEM, to take part in the international peer review of the Netherlands’ Strategy for Sustainable Development.

Other members of the review team are from South-Africa, Finland and Germany. The review team is being observed by members of the UN, OECD, EU DG Environment and the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Council.

The revised EU Sustainable Development Strategy, endorsed in June 2006, proposes that Member States undertake peer reviews of national strategies for sustainable development. The RMNO, the independent and multi-stakeholder Dutch Advisory Council for Research on Spatial Planning, Nature and the Environment (RMNO), in cooperation with other advisory councils, has been assigned by the government to organise this review in the Netherlands. This peer review process is the first of a series of such processes since the new EU SDS was published, and is supported by the European Commission.

A peer review is the systematic examination and assessment of the performance of a state by foreign experts, with the ultimate goal of helping the reviewed state improve its policy making, adopt best practices, and comply with established standards and principles. Practice shows that reciprocal learning is a key success factor of peer reviews. It is expected that not only the reviewed state will learn from the international reviewers, but that the process will also be helpful for the peer reviewers and their countries. Through the publication of the results (the peer review report), other Member States will also get access to the experiences –positive and less positive- of the reviewed country.

Ludwig Karg together with Prof. Dr. Maximilian Gege from INEM’s German member B.A.U.M. e. V. are representing the business community of sustainability oriented industries and SME’s. “We understand that this instrument of national sustainability strategies is key to supporting the sustainability process in the EU business community. We want to learn how Dutch industries and SMEs are performing in terms of sustainability. Through INEM we can feed the experiences to businesses in other countries and we are definitely willing to help other INEM members supporting sustainability schemes in their respective countries” Ludwig Karg and Prof. Maximilian Gege say.