European Forum on Eco-innovation
Aims and objectives
The European Union’s Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP) aims to promote eco-innovation and the take-up of environmental technologies on a broad scale. In order to achieve this aim, the European Commission, Member States and relevant stakeholders take the lead in their respective roles and capacities.
To date, the Commission works mainly with Member States on advancing the Plan. A number of Actions have already been put into motion. Regular meetings are held with Member States through a High Level Working Group.
There is also a need to bring together and increase the mobilisation of relevant stakeholders from business, finance and relevant technology domains. This is the aim of the Forum.
The main task of the Forum is to explore strategic orientations for the future development of ETAP and to mobilise stakeholders for action. Emphasis is given to a business orientation. The Forum provides a platform for discussion, debate and interaction. It fosters the mobilisation of the relevant players towards common objectives and proposes concrete strategies for future action.
The Forum
The Forum convenes twice a year as a one-day conference event. These are envisaged to be on the scale of around 200 persons. Other preparatory and consultation meetings are also be convened as necessary.
Participants at the Forum are from business, finance, technology development, academia, non-governmental organisations and other relevant stakeholders actively involved in eco-innovation and environmental technologies.
Members of the ETAP High Level Working Group are invited, and a selection of members from other relevant groups, such as the High Level Group on Competitiveness, Energy and the Environment are also be invited.
Events are designed to facilitate cross fertilisation, to identify common objectives, to bring forward key issues that need to be addressed, and to mobilise for action. Each Forum event focuses on a theme and features a number of panel sessions relevant to that theme.
Themes are of strategic importance – ones that need to be discussed and advanced, so as to prepare for future action; themes with business relevance are given priority. Suggestions for a Forum theme come from the ETAP High Level Working Group and the Commission.
Typically a Forum event is a one-day conference with an opening presentation, followed by two or three panel sessions in plenary form. Each panel session is made up of four to six panellists. The panellists invited have a reputation in the field, and debate and bring forward issues on the topics. The debate is also be open to all the Forum participants, and appropriately moderated.
Panellists differ from one Forum event to the other, and from one panel session to the other, depending on requirements and on the theme and subject to the addressed. Panellists are expected to prepare for events and to hold preparatory meetings as necessary. They are also responsible for writing their findings and recommendations in publishable form.
Forum conferences are also designed to raise visibility of eco-innovation and environmental technologies. Communications and media activities form part of the events. Highlights and conclusions of the Forum discussions and debates are published and broadly disseminated.
Operation
Task Groups are established to facilitate the organisation of Forum events. These groups are made up of persons from: the European Commission, the ETAP High Level Working Group and stakeholders, in particular from the business community. The Task Group is responsible for the organisation of the Forum events.
This involves:
- Choosing topics for each panel session, relevant to the Forum theme
- Choosing panellists for each panel session
- Selecting moderators
- Preparing lists of Forum members to be invited
- Consolidating locations for events
- Planning logistics
Choices made are based on the suggestions from the Commission and Member States. The Groups hold preparatory meetings prior to events as necessary, and report regularly at ETAP High Level Working Group meetings.
It is expected that persons serve on the Task Group for a period of one year. In the same way that Member States have volunteered to undertake various ETAP actions, it is suggested that representatives from Member States volunteer to work on the Task Group for a given period. Persons acting on the Task Group are selected by the Commission based on suggestions received.
Persons acting on the Task Group are expected to act in an individual capacity, working towards the interest of the eco-innovation as a whole rather than representing the interests of their particular company or organisation.
Task Groups should be of a size small enough to ensure the effectiveness of its operation – up to eight persons is envisaged. Of these it is envisaged that half would come from the ETAP High Level Working Group; and the other half would be stakeholders, in particular from the business community. The European Commission chairs the meetings.
The Commission provides a secretariat to support the meetings and activities of both the Task Group and the Forum. The secretariat handles the administrative aspects of organising meetings and events, maintaining contact with Forum members and Panellists, and producing documentation and organising communication activities.
