Citizen involvement in Germany has been strengthened by several legal innovations. These include the law that came into effect on 26th February 2013 to improve the rights of patients and the law passed on 31st May 2013 to improve public participation and to standardise planning procedures. Furthermore, the European Union has declared 2013 to be the year of the citizen. Through this they wish to make better known the opportunities available within the EU to participate in the European legislative process. For the editors of the UMID magazine, this is an opportunity to devote an entire issue to citizen involvement in projects and processes in the field of “Environment and Health” in Germany.
Alongside the new laws, the authors explain the opportunities for participation already available, for example in the planning and implementation of noise reduction measures. Since 2002, the EU guidelines on environmental noise have opened up a certain amount of leeway for the structuring of participation. The Federal Environment Agency have therefore been supporting a project that trials the new procedure for citizen involvement in noise protection. Experiences and results of the project are evaluated by researchers for the first time in the new UMID.
Concrete experiences of citizen involvement in socially controversial areas are illustrated by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection using two examples.
- In the German Mobile Telecommunication Research Programme (DMF), the Federal Office for Radiation Protection has over several years organised public participation of citizens, non-governmental organisations, citizens’ initiatives and medical teams in scientific investigations into the effects of mobile telecommunication on humans and the environment.
- The possible consequences of a lack of public involvement are illustrated by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection using the example of the Asse mine, which it it started to decommission in 2009. Once celebrated as a showcase project, the social environment around Asse in 2009 was characterised by criticism and a mistrust of government actions. Besides the geological and technical issues of safe decommissioning, the main concern of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection is to involve the anxious population directly in the ongoing process right through to the secure closure of the final storage location.
The evaluation of health risks that could arise from foodstuffs and commodities are of particular interest to citizens. Scientists from the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, legally entrusted with risk communication in this field, introduced new, particularly dialogue-oriented procedures such as consumer conferences and consumer protection forums. In recent years these have been used primarily to ascertain the information and communication requirements of a group of persons affected by a risk topic, as well as to debate current scientific knowledge, and thus to structure efficiently the communication of risk. The aim is a participative dialogue through which citizens obtain an insight into the criteria for governmental decisions.
The magazine UMID (Umwelt und Mensch – Informationsdienst / Environment and People - Information Service) is published three to four times a year and contains information on subjects such as the environment, health and consumer protection. It is available for free. UMID is issued together by the Federal Environment Ministry, the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection - agencies part of the Aktionsprogramm Umwelt und Gesundheit (APUG / Action Programme Environment and Health) – as well as the Federal Environment Agency, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and Robert Koch-Institute.
