In the particular areas for which the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management is responsible, European integration is manifesting itself in the introduction of market forces and competition. Now that the internal market is nearing completion, the Netherlands and this ministry in particular - faces a crossroads in European affairs: the choice either to press ahead with liberalisation or to change direction in order to achieve the progress in prosperity and public welfare which is the ultimate aim of European integration. At this point in the process of integration, the ministry wishes to reflect on the basic issue of its own terms of reference. This advisory report from the Advisory Council for Transport, Infrastructure and Water Management contains the results of an attempt to elucidate the future role of the ministry in the light of developments within Europe. Based on analyses and interviews, the Council concludes that the decisive factor controlling changes within Europe continues to be the internal market, with all its advantages and disadvantages. And it is primarily the disadvantages that will demand a proactive approach on the part of the ministry. The ministry's request for advice identified a number of developments, such as the enlargement of the EU and the increased role of the European Parliament. These are certainly important, but mainly in relation to the pace of change. The very title of the report indicates the consequence of the new policy thrust: as a result of developments within Europe, the ministry's future role will divide roughly into two parts: one `finite' and the other `on-going'. A consequence of liberalisation and the introduction of market forces is that the ministry will lose its executive tasks (telecom, postal services and railways) in the not too distant future. For the sake of reciprocity with other Member States, the ministry must actively cooperate in the elimination of these finite tasks. Meanwhile, it will have to wrestle with apparently conflicting responsibilities: to shed state monopolies while protecting the public interest, and to protect the interests of individual members of the public while at the same time shielding companies against imperfections in the market. For example, it will be possible to protect bodies in the process of privatisation by observing the principle of reciprocity, in order to enable them to prepare for entry into the open market. At the same time, other companies will actually be given preferential treatment over the holder of the former state monopoly in order to stimulate free competition in the sector concerned. Ultimately, however, the role of government will change: it will no longer be a monopolist and `protector', but rather a `watchdog' and a designer of policies to be operated at arms length. In this respect, policy design and implementation need not necessarily remain in the hands of the ministry; in some cases they have already been surrendered (e.g. supervision of the telecom market (OPTA) and general competition policy). The ministry should also be prepared to shed tasks where developments in the marketplace make it necessary, or indeed possible, to do so. The Council does not expect the European single market to be a panacea. Even when responsibilities have been privatised and supervision has been `hived off', there will still be a number of tasks left for the public sector to undertake in relation to the liberalised internal market. Neither the quality of life and the welfare of members of the public nor safety and public works can be left to the mercy of market forces. In the fields of traffic and transport policy, greater growth and mobility will always require preventative and remedial measures to ensure a sustainable and acceptable future quality of life. As a densely populated country of transit, the Netherlands knows this better than anyone. This makes the Netherlands an especially suitable candidate to inject this non-commercial dimension into European affairs in the form of an `integrated' approach. Such integrated policy can only be established in close cooperation with other relevant parties (e.g. market partners and government departments). The sector-by-sector structure of European decision-making guarantees the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management a major role in this respect. If the ministry wishes to remain a significant player in the Europe of the future, this is where its best chances lie. The Council has applied this approach to European affairs to a number of selected areas of the ministry's work. The results are presented in the table on page 46 of the report. All this suggests that the mission of the future Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management will include the following elements: - acting as a watchdog for the public interest and the interests of individual members of the public and using policy-making on water management, safety and the environment to impose conditions which would not emerge from the free interplay of market forces. Monitoring will be essential, and the Permanent Representation in Brussels will play a major part in this; - cooperating with other government departments on the development of integrated policies on specific issues in the closely related areas of transport, safety, the environment, physical planning and public services; - acting on behalf of the Netherlands to pioneer the creation of integrated European policies. A flexible approach can be taken to individual policy initiatives, which may be undertaken multilaterally or bilaterally with like-minded Member States. At present, it seems improbable that an integrated approach to transport policies can be achieved within the European Union. But the existence of the twin fixed strategic goals of social welfare and economic integration in no way rules out a pragmatic, flexible approach. That kind of approach calls for a tactical game of changing coalitions with like-minded Member States. The implication for the ministry's work within Europe is that it must take a practical and issue-centred approach to the task of forging alliances at an early stage within European institutions or in the capital cities of Europe. The final section of this report makes further suggestions on the way in which the ministry might approach its activities in Brussels. (A)
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