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The Integrated Appraisal Methodology – Environment, Competitiveness and Innovation

One key role of the Directorate General for Industry (DG III) of the European Commission is to promote the competitiveness of industry and to provide a favourable environment for business by acting as the main interface between industry and the Commission through Community policies and by developing new policies and instruments concerning industrial competitiveness. A need has been identified to develop an Integrated Appraisal Methodology for use by DG III of the European Commission, the primary role being to allow mutual integration of competitiveness and environmental requirements into the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities. The obligation for the integration of environmental concerns is stated in article 3c of the Amsterdam Treaty, and its concept also mentioned in one of the key actions of the 5 European Environmental Action Programme. Furthermore, a resolution from the European Parliament calls for clear guidelines and indicators for monitoring and evaluating the degree of integration of environmental requirements into Community policies and activities. The IA project was begun in January 1999 and will be concluded in March 2000. A follow-up project entitled "A Methodology for Appraising the Sustainability Implications of EC Initiatives: The Integration of Economic, Societal and Environmental Aspects" is planned.


Mutual integration of environmental and competitiveness requirements into DG III policies
One key role of the Directorate General for Industry (DG III) of the European Commission is to promote the competitiveness of industry and to provide a favourable environment for business by acting as the main interface between industry and the Commission through Community policies and by developing new policies and instruments concerning industrial competitiveness. A need has been identified to develop an Integrated Appraisal Methodology for use by DG III of the European Commission, the primary role being to allow mutual integration of competitiveness and environmental requirements into the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities.
The obligation for the integration of environmental concerns is stated in article 3c of the Amsterdam Treaty, and its concept also mentioned in one of the key actions of the 5 th European Environmental Action Programme. Furthermore, a resolution from the European Parliament calls for clear guidelines and indicators for monitoring and evaluating the degree of integration of environmental requirements into Community policies and activities.
The IA Plus project was begun in January 1999 and will be concluded in March 2000. A follow-up project entitled "A Methodology for Appraising the Sustainability Implications of EC Initiatives: The Integration of Economic, Societal and Environmental Aspects" is planned.

A complex and interrelated framework
The primary objective of the project "Integrated Appraisal Methodology (IA Plus )" is to produce a structured "checklist" of questions that enable the assessment of initiatives and policies in terms of environmental innovation and competitiveness issues. Thus, the appraisal methodology will consist of two parts, the environment tool and the competitiveness tool.
Specific objectives of the IA PLUS methodology include: • Increasing support for measures that promote sustainable development; • Ensuring consideration of alternative policy options at an early stage of development; • Supporting transparency in the decisionmaking process and reduce conflicts related to environmental issues; • Enabling diverse environmental impacts to be anticipated and as far as possible avoided or prevented; • Drawing attention to win-win situations such as positive environmental impact and improved conditions for competitiveness and innovation; • Increasing the awareness of the global and international dimensions of policy activity at all levels and complex interaction between the economy and the environment; • Helping to identify trade-offs and interactions between environmental objectives and the need to foster competitiveness and innovation.
Whilst this checklist will only be able to achieve this in a broad-brush manner, it will nevertheless ensure that these issues are addressed in an integrated way and early on in the policy-making process. The latter point is particularly important in ensuring that environmental issues are addressed at a time when more than one policy option may be available.
One intention of this method is that the checklist will be fairly straightforward and quick to complete, which is important if people are to be encouraged to make good use of this tool.
Innovation and competitiveness are closely related because an innovative company is usually also able to be highly competitive. Thus, the checklist should help evaluate the impact of EU policies and projects on innovation behaviour as one of the key aspects of competitiveness. It therefore has to consider a complex and interrelated framework that distinguishes between: firstly, different impact levels, which are the macro (national), meso (industry) and micro (firm) level; secondly, between different phases of the innovation process (invention, innovation and diffusion); and finally between product, process, organisational and institutional changes. In addition, indirect effects as well as direct ones will need to be considered, and that there are often un-intended, as well as intended, effects of many policy initiatives.

Scope of the project
The scope will be pan-European. IA PLUS contains a list of qualitative and quantitative questions. It comprises three main sections on Indexing, Screening and Scoping.

Indexing
The Indexing section asks for information about the user (e.g. name, date, etc.), details of the nature of the initiative, identification of the main aims of the initiative. The purpose is primarily to be able to categorise the initiative being assessed and to record the details of assessment such that it can be referenced and interpreted by others or at a different time in the policy-making process. Thus the boundaries around the assessment are then defined and understood.

Sreening
The Screening section contains a list of fairly broad-based questions on innovation, competitiveness and environmental issues.
At this stage the potential linkages between a policy or a project and innovation, competitiveness and environmental issues are estimated at a general level. The results of this screening phase show which topics should be studied further. The screening questions may also indicate that the policy or project has no significant impacts, in which case the appraisal process naturally ends at the screening stage.
For example, in the environmental area this could be divided in terms of impact on: • the use of natural resources • pollution to air, land and water • energy and transport usage.
The broad areas of impact of the competitiveness screening are the ones listed below: • Costs and expenditures born by firms and institutions • Technical, organisational and institutional innovation • Internationalisation strategies and performances • Level, composition and productivity of labour force

Scoping
This screening section forms the basis from which the scoping section can deal with impacts in each of these areas in greater detail. At the scoping level arise both beneficial and nonbeneficial implications of the initiative being assessed. The scoping section is designed to follow-through from the screening section questions.
The main purpose of the scoping is to provide greater detail and clarification in the areas of impact identified in the screening section. This is achieved by more specific questions in particular areas.
Each question in the scoping section is organised into a broader assessment and into more specific multiple choice sub-questions that aim at a more precise specification of the assessment. The user is assisted in replying to the first part of the question by means of background information that can be accessed ticking the more information needed box.
Further information and guidance may be needed by the user to complete these questions, and in some instances it may be necessary to obtain specialist expertise to complete a fuller assessment.