Stakeholders’ involvement Clause Samples

Stakeholders’ involvement. The organisation of national social dialogue and civil dialogue is a competence of the Member States. As our analysis shows, the aim to enhance stakeholders’ involvement and citizens’ participation is a key element in the EU’s just transition initiatives and, in some cases, a requirement. This said, this aim does not seem to match the reality in the Member States. Reviewing the national multilevel climate and energy dialogue structures that the Member States were required to set up under art. 11 of the Regulation on the governance of the Energy Union, the European Commission’s assessment notes that various levels of maturity of the dialogue were identified (European Commission 2023d). Concerning multi-level dialogues in the planning processes on energy and climate, the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change points out that there is no guarantee that public consultation processes during national/local energy and climate planning are of sufficient quality, given that the European Climate Law encourages but does not require the involvement of advisory bodies, and neither do the NECP procedural obligations. In terms of monitoring, the information reported leaves considerable uncertainty over ‘(i) the number of Member States with permanent multilevel dialogue, (ii) the involvement of all required stakeholder categories and (iii) the coverage of topics discussed’ (ESABCC 2024:276). In the design and implementation, also, of the JTF’s Territorial Just Transition Plans, available studies highlight considerable variation between the Member States in the scope, openness, and effectiveness of stakeholders’ involvement (Eurofound 2023). In general, ensuring that participatory structures align more closely with the Aarhus Convention would require progress beyond the current structures, standard actors and means of involvement, to generate meaningful and continual participation in decision-making processes. This would strengthen the procedural justice credentials of the EU just transition framework, an aspect which currently seems to be less valued than the distributive understanding of social justice (▇▇▇▇▇▇ 2023). Many actors, including the European Commission (2022b) itself have called for progress beyond the current practices defined and structured by scientific and political institutions. The EEA (2023b) refers to the EGD objective to have ‘citizens as the driving force’, calling for greater ambition in the changing and reframing of the very processes...