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European Common Indicators
(ECI)
Added value:
-awareness raising
-comparability
-trend
analysis
Obstacles:
Time and
resources, methodological problems, lack of data, broadness of indicators
Recommendations:
-co-ordination
& aggregation with other EU Initiatives (e.g. Urban Audit)
-promotional
campaign
-networking
-involvement
of national institutions
-ECI common
data standards (in line with recommendations from INSPIRE)
-regular
publishing of data
Extract
from the European Common Indicators Final Report
To view
the final report please see:
http://euronet.uwe.ac.uk/www.sustainable-cities.org/indicators/ECI%20Final%20Report.pdf
The
ECI initiative: 1999 preparatory process
The ECI
initiative was started off in May 1999 with the setting up of a Working Group
on Sustainable Indicators (for initiative of and
under the supervision of the Expert
Group
on the Urban Environment and led by the French Environmental Ministry) with
the task to develop common (harmonised) indicators for
local sustainability, in close
collaboration with a wider Group of Local Authorities.
Since the beginning, the aim of the initiative has been to develop and test
indicators reflecting local actions towards sustainability in as much an
integrated way as possible.
The
outcome of the initial phase
was a proposal, suggesting a set of indicators on a limited
number of themes, in order to allow the strengthening of some core
methodologies through effective implementation. The set is however intended to
remain flexible and open to include other relevant topics.
Further,
ECI is characterised by a good level of complementarity
with respect to
existing local, national and sectoral
indicators’ sets, since it was not defined to displace or compete with any
local/national priority therein reflected. In fact, the ECIs
aim at representing local action towards sustainability in as much an
integrated way as possible.
Indicators
have been developed according to a bottom up approach since the very
beginning of the project, involving local authorities as
main actors in the process and
improving synergies with existing indicators sets. This
shows, on the one hand, to what extent its ethos is actually based upon
understanding the real needs of municipalities,and on the other, the possibilities of achievement
of policy objectives from actions that bridge more than one level of
governance. If, on the one hand, the ECIs scope is to
fulfil the requirements of indicators envisaged in the current EU policy
perspective - in as much as they intend to promote an integrated and harmonised
approach across community policies - on the other, they aim to ensure local
appropriateness, valuing local and lay knowledge and the principle of subsidiarity. Both aspects can be traced back to the six
Sustainability Principles permeating the indicators (see below). To qualify
into the set, an indicator had to address at least three of them (= integration
requirement). Over 1,000 indicators were analysed both against this requirement
and against a list of general criteria. The most important, well-established
indicators systems have served as a source of inspiration, as building
blocks for the creation of a new system.
The
outcome of the numerous and extensive consultation rounds with towns and cities,was the agreement on a list
of 10 common issues/indicators Sustainable Indicators and submitted to various
rounds of discussion
Sustainability
Concerns forming the basis for the indicators’ selection (extract
from “Checklist”):
1. equality and
social inclusion (access for all to adequate and affordable basic
services, e.g.
education, employment, energy, health, housing, training,transport);
2. local governance/empowerment/democracy (participation of all
sectors of the localcommunity in local planning and
decision making processes);
3. local/global
relationship (meeting local needs locally, from production to consumption and
disposal, meeting needs that cannot be met locally in a more sustainable way);
4. local economy (matching local skills and needs with
employment availability and other facilities, in a way that poses minimum
threat to natural resources and the environment);
5. environmental
protection (adopting an eco-systems approach, minimising use of natural
resources and land, generation of waste and emission of pollutants,
enhancing
bio-diversity);
6. cultural
heritage/quality of the built environment (protection, preservation and
rehabilitation of
historic, cultural and architectural values, including buildings,
monuments,
events, enhancing and safeguarding attractiveness and functionality of spaces
and buildings).
The
ECI initiative: 2000 launching process
Environment
Commissioner Margot Wallström launched the initiative
at the 3°
European
Conference on Sustainable Cities (9-12 February 2000, Hanover, Germany),inviting local and regional authorities from across Europe to
participate. Participation is based on signing the voluntary adoption agreement.
The
following activities have been carried out since the launch (up to January
2001):
·
a
survey was carried out by Eurocities in the summer of year 2000, to get a first
idea of if and how participating local authorities were implementing the European
Common Indicators;
·
a first technical workshop for the mutual exchange
of experiences took place in October 2000 in Seville
(promoted by the Municipality, IPTS, Eurocities), to discuss in particular the
initiative needs, in terms of methods for data collection and calculation;
·
following the Seville
workshop, 10 indicator-based working groups (IBGs)
were set up, one group per indicator, with the responsibility of defining the
methodologies. |