Organization structure of the Danish Environmental and Energy
The nature of the parliamentary majority is decisive for what environmental policy is conducted in Denmark. Parliament has only one chamber and the government is often a minority government. It is even possible for the government to be forced by a parliamentary majority to conduct an environmental policy counter to its own wishes. For example, the opposition can force the government to introduce a specific Bill before Parliament simply by getting a motion to that effect passed. The law is Parliament’s most important instrument and the main principles on the environmental front are enshrined in 11 different laws. Numerous partial amendments are made to these laws over the years, whereas completely new laws are only usually drawn up every 10-20 years.
Parliament’s work on environmental policy is concentrated in a standing committee - the Committee on the Environment and Regional Planning. The Committee is comprised of 17 members elected relative to the size of each political party among the 179 Members of Parliament. Bills concerning environmental questions are considered by the Committee. The Committee can at any time pose questions to the Minister on any aspect relating to the environment, and this happens even if only one member should so require.
The normal course of events is an interplay between the government and a parliamentary majority whereby the government puts forward the desired proposals and the members of the Committee then have the opportunity to leave their stamp on the legislation. It is also normal that a large parliamentary majority supports an ambitious environmental policy.
When drawing up EC rules for implementation, the decisive role is played by another standing committee - the European Affairs Committee. Although the Committee on the Environment and Regional Planning is heard on the specific environmental policy problems in the EC proposals, the general political line is laid down in the European Affairs Committee.
4.1.2. The Minister for Environment and Energy and the Ministry of Environment and Energy:
1971 saw the introduction of a Minister for Pollution Control, and in 1973 the ministry was expanded to a Ministry of the Environment with reponsibility for several additional areas. In October 1994 the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Energy were merged as the new Ministry of Environment and Energy. This was a natural decision given background and development of the Ministry of Energy. The latter was originally stablished in response to the energy crises in 1973 and 1979 with the task of ensuring energy supply safety. The problem of energy supply safety is no longer so great: Denmark obtains oil and gas from the North Sea, and Danish power stations use coal to produce electricity. In recent years the Ministry of Energy has therefore placed more emphasis on the environmental and resource aspects of the energy area.
The Ministry of Environment and Energy’s current area of responsibility is evident from the organizational structure of the Ministry shown diagrammatically below.
Organization structure of the Danish Environmental and Energy
The Ministry proper comprises the Ministerial Division, which serves the immediate needs of the Minister, as well as two interdisciplinary divisions (Finance and Personnel) and a Regional Planning Department comprised of three divisions. The total staff numbers approx. 100. Ministerial briefs, etc. on matters that lie within the areas of responsibility of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Forest and Nature Agency and the Energy Agency are provided directly by those agencies.
Since the politically most taxing cases lie in the environmental protection sector, most of the Minister for Environment and Energy’s time is devoted to that aspect.
The Minister for Environment and Energy has the political responsibility for all questions within his field of responsibility.
The Minister has full power of instruction in relation to the Danish EPA. Thus he can request the Agency to provide absolutely anything within his field of responsibility, and he can - if he so desires - stipulate what ruling the Agency shall make in a specific case.
The Minister does not have full power of instruction in relation to the Counties and Municipalities. They are only bound by the general environmental rules, i.e. Acts and Statutory Orders. Nevertheless, the Minister has the power to decide that he himself will process a case of far-reaching significance. This occurs once a year at most, respect for local autonomy being great. However, rulings are sometimes appealed, in which case the national authority - the Danish EPA - undertakes a complete re-examination of the case. This probably happens in some hundred - perhaps thousand - cases each year, corresponding to just a few percent of the major local rulings. The Danish EPA’s practice in appeals is of considerable importance as a means of regulation.
From the legal point of view the Minister’s most important instrument is the power that the various environmental laws bestow upon him to issue specific rules - Statutory Orders. For example, the Environmental Protection Act bestows upon the Minister for Environment and Energy such great authority that he can issue rules to deal with almost any environmental problem. In practice, however, these powers are exercised with extreme political dexterity. It is custom in Denmark that all involved parties are heard when drawing up Statutory Orders, and it is considered as a personal victory for the Minister if he is able to bring all parties to accept that his solution is the most well-balanced.
Organization structure of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency
From the political point of view legislative work is often the Minister’s most important task. He (or she) would like to be able to say "This and that was achieved when I was Minister for Environment and Energy", by which he means that he saw through the adoption of some laws on the subject.
Since 1982 the holders of the post have usually been politicians with considerable weight in the government.
The Danish Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1972. The majority of the tasks the law bestows on the Minister have by him been reassigned to the Danish EPA. The Agency also prepares much of the material that the Minister shall use, e.g. draft Bills, Statutory Orders and Parliamentary Replies, etc. The Agency has a staff of 300-350.
The Agency’s principal tasks are as follows:
 | Serving the Minister: This primarily involves preparing draft Bills, Statutory
Orders, Parliamentary Replies, reports, etc. |
| EC negotiations: The Agency provides the Danish representatives for negotiations
concerning proposed Directives, both those to negotiate at the preliminary meetings under
the auspices of the Commission, and those to negotiate under the auspices of the Council.
In addition to this EC work, the Agency also administers other international activities. |
| Controlling and advising local authorities: It is the task of the Agency to
orchestrate Danish environmental administration. This is achieved by the distribution of
written material (Guidelines, Circulars, answers to questions, etc.), the further
education of local environmental staff and by the answering questions posed by telephone.
Of special significance here are the Danish EPA’s written Guidelines. They are often
the result of a several year long process involving discussions with a large number of
parties. As the Environmental Board of Appeals places great weight on thoroughly prepared
Guidelines such as these, they have considerable impact on the work of the local
authorities. |
| Appeals: The Danish EPA is the body of 1st appeal in cases under the
Environmental Protection Act, and therefore receives appeals from citizens, enterprises,
organizations, etc., who are unhappy with the ruling of the local authorities. |
| Primary decision-making body: The Danish EPA is the primary decision-making body
in cases under the Chemical Substances and Products Act, as well as the Environment and
Genetic Engineering Act. This gives rise to both large and small cases. The Agency also
has supervisory responsibility for the chemical substances area. It should be noted,
though, that the Agency is not the primary decision-making body in cases relating to the
Environmental Protection Act. |
The organizational structure of the Danish EPA is as shown in Fig. 4.2.
The National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) and the Geological Survey of Denmark (DGU) have the same standing in the Ministry of Environment and Energy as does the EPA, but do not have any administrative functions. However, they play a role as producers of knowledge on environmental matters, and they undertake monitoring.
NERI is comprised of ten scientific departments: Environmental Chemistry; Marine Ecology and Microbiology; Terrestrial Ecology; Policy Analysis; Atmospheric Environment; Streams and Riparian Areas; Lake and Estuarine Ecology; Landscape Ecology; Costal Zone Ecology; and Arctic Environment. NERI’s mandate is to perform research and monitoring, and to provide advice on questions of environmental importance. The staff numbers 400, of which 100 are financed by contract research.
DGU is comprised of eight scientific departments and has a staff of 200. The work undertaken by the Hydrogeology Department, which has a staff of 40, is the foundation on which the EPA and the Counties administer the groundwater resources.
To serve as the basis for its administrative work, the Danish EPA needs to use large numbers of studies and reports. These are purchased from NERI and the DGU, as well as from private consultants. Annual expenditure on such works amounts to around DKK 100 million, which is equivalent to EPA’s total salary budget. These external contract studies thus make a significant contribution to the Agency’s work.
The advantage of this division into an administrative agency - the EPA - and two information-producing units is that the success criteria and hence the demands on the personnel are different. With the EPA, it is the political and administrative criteria that are most important, even though considerable weight must also be given to scientific criteria. With NERI and DGU, in contrast, it is scientific criteria - equivalent to those applying in the research world - that are predominant. That the units do not become too large and heterogeneous is also advantageous.
The other administrative agency in the Ministry of Environment and Energy - the National Forest and Nature Agency - has no responsibilities as regards pollution. The Agency looks after nature protection and runs the state forests (1/3 of Denmark’s forests are owned and run by the State).
4.1.3. The Environmental Board of Appeals and the Nature Protection Board of Appeals:
The primary decision-making body in an environmental case is always the local authority, i.e. the Municipality or the County. Certain minor cases - as defined in the Statutory Order in question - cannot be appealed. This applies to cases concerning household pets and livestock, wood burning stoves, sewage effluents of less than 30 PE, etc.
Normally only one further appeal is allowed - to the Danish EPA (the body of 1st appeal in such cases). However, in certain cases the ruling can be further appealed from the Danish EPA to the Environmental Board of Appeals, the proviso being that the case must concern a listed enterprise (see section 5.2) or a municipal sewage treatment plant, and be either large or of principle significance.
Appeal system
The Environmental Board of Appeals is independent of the Minister, i.e. the Minister may not instruct the Board as to what ruling should be reached in specific cases.
For each specific case a Board is convened comprising the Appeal Board Chairman (or one of the two Vice-Chairmen) and two or four experts. The Board Chairman and the two Vice-Chairmen are full-time civil servants. The law demands that they are lawyers. They each come from a position in the Ministry of the Environment.
The experts are selected from two registers. One of the registers is comprised of experts suggested by a number of trade organizations. The organizations stipulated in the Environmental Protection Act are the Confederation of Danish Industries, the agricultural sector organizations and the Economic Council of the Labour Movement. In the case of other Acts, the organizations stipulated are a slight variation on the same theme. The experts suggested by the trade and industry organizations are usually engineers and scientists, often from leading positions in the business community. The other register is assembled pursuant to the Environmental Protection Act by the Danish EPA, and pursuant to other Acts by the Danish EPA in collaboration with other relevant authorities. The Danish EPA always selects engineers and scientists, most of whom are from educational establishments and independent institutes, although a few are from the local authorities.
When a specific case arises, the Board Chairman/Vice-Chairman selects one or two experts from each register on the basis of each expert’s specialist knowledge.
In Denmark, cases falling under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) rules are categorized as regional planning. The primary decision-making body is normally the County, while the body of 1st appeal is the Nature Protection Board of Appeals. This board is comprised of one chairman who is a lawyer, two Supreme Court justices and, at present, seven political representatives. This Board is the body of final appeal with regard to town and country planning and nature protection.
4.1.4. Other ministries:
The 1987 Brundtland report "Our Common Future", i.e. the report of the UNEP commission which examined the world’s environmental problems, and which had as its chairman the current Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, has instigated considerable discussion in the Danish environmental sector. One of the controversial viewpoints in the report can be summarized as follows: Greatest consideration is given to the environment when the concept is thoroughly integrated in the individual sector ministries. Thus even if a ministry of the environment agitates for consideration to be given to the environment, it will be to little avail if the other sectors ignore that ministry.
The Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy is a relatively strong ministry. It has the power of authority over industry, power stations and municipal polluters. As discussed in more detail later in the sections dealing with the different environmental areas, it is exactly with respect to these three groups of polluters that the greatest reductions in discharges have been achieved. The positive result is attributable to the fact that the environmental authorities have negotiated directly with the polluters, and have been able to negotiate their way to decisions on improvements.
Danish experience therefore lends no support to the viewpoint that a ministry of the environment cannot achieve anything without the acceptance of the other ministries. The Danish successes are the result of direct negotiation between the organizations representing the polluters and the Ministry of the Environment. The polluters’ sector ministries have not played any role.
This notwithstanding, it is certainly correct that without environmental awareness in a polluting sector, the results will be meagre. In cases where the sector ministry is itself a polluter (e.g. the Ministry of Defence), environmental awareness in the ministry is absolutely essential if the pollution is to be limited.
What makes the Brundtland viewpoint controversial is that it proposes, for example, that the Ministry for Agriculture and Fishery should administer the environmental aspects of agriculture, that the Ministry of Business and Industries should administer the environmental aspects of industry, etc.
In this regard, Danish experience also provides some material for discussion:
Until the adoption of the Action Plan on the Aquatic Environment in 1987, agricultural pollution was unquestionably the providence of the Ministry of the Environment. Although the Action Plan entrusted further action to the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry for Agriculture and Fishery nevertheless secured itself a couple of "bridgeheads", i.e. administrative areas for which it could have environmental responsibility. In 1990 it became clear that the objectives of the Action Plan on the Aquatic Environment were not being fulfilled in so far as concerned the agricultural sector. The Ministry for Agriculture and Fishery therefore took upon itself the task of putting forward a plan for "sustainable agriculture", the main idea of which proved to be a significant postponement of the deadlines for fulfilling the objectives of the Action Plan on the Aquatic Environment. The plan was nevertheless adopted by Parliament in 1991, and the Ministry of the Environment’s influence as regards agricultural pollution has since been minimal. Moreover, neither the Ministry of the Environment nor the Ministry for Agriculture and Fishery have so far been able to reduce agricultural nitrate pollution.
In the energy sector, the Ministry of Energy took the lead in environmental policy by putting forward an energy action plan that was extremely ambitious, not least with respect to reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The plan could not have been drawn up more ambitiously by the Ministry of the Environment. In this example, therefore, nothing was lost by the sector ministry having taken the lead. The big question, however, is whether the plan will be realized; so far this does not seem very likely.
After the October 1994 General Election the Ministry of Energy was merged with the Ministry of the Environment into one new ministry, the Ministry of Environment and Energy. Integration has been undertaken in such a way that the Ministry has only one ministerial division covering both areas. The Energy Agency has been kept as an independent agency.
In the transport sector, the Ministry of Transport put forward plans for sustainable transport in 1990 and 1993. Although it is the Ministry of Environment and Energy which represents Denmark in international negotiations on vehicular pollution, the Ministry of Transport has now decided to give higher priority to environmental measures. For example, in 1993 DKK 30 million was expended on combating roadside noise. However, neither the Ministry of Environment and Energy nor the Ministry of Transport have so far been able to do much about the growth in traffic. Moreover, if one is to be realistic, it is hardly Danish authorities who deserve credit for the fact that the car manufacturers have been forced to produce less polluting vehicles. From the political point of view there has been a change of attitude in the Ministry of Transport such that it no longer appears as a hurdle to efforts on the environmental front.
The Ministry of Defence is - as in the majority of countries - a major source of pollution. However, since 1994 the defence forces have worked very energetically to control their environmental problems. An environmental management programme has been initiated that should lead to certification under BS 7750, and a very large sum of money has been set aside for the remediation of contaminated sites.
Since 1993, all Danish Ministries have been required to draw up Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for all their Bills, Action Plans, etc. However, it is as yet too early to tell whether these efforts have borne fruit.
In my opinion, the conclusion that can be drawn from Danish experience is the following: If one wants to stimulate activity on the environmental front, one has to have a ministry of the environment. Moreover, the stronger the ministry of the environment is, the greater the impact it will have. If one inhabits a market economy then the ministry of the environment should direct its environmental requirements directly at those who are to comply with the requirements - in Denmark this would be the organizations representing the industrial sector in the case of requirements directed at industry, the organizations representing the energy sector in the case of requirements directed at power stations, etc. Though if the economy is dirigiste, then it is probably correct that efforts should be directed towards influencing the ministries with whom the power lies, e.g. the ministry of industry, the ministry of energy, etc.
However, even in a market economy, the ministry of the environment can
strengthen its impact if the other ministries (finance, transport, energy, agriculture,
etc.) pull in the same direction.
