INDEPENDENT & TRIPARTITE
HIGH LEVEL GROUP ON
The High Level Group on Governance Innovation has been launched in 2020 in cooperation with the European Policy Centre (EPC). The group is chaired by Nout Wellink, former chairman of the Central Bank of the Netherlands and former member of the ECB Board.
More and more new objectives have been set for the EU but not enough attention has been paid to delivery. Expectations are ever increasing but the means and capacity are not, leaving an expectation-capability gap that is undermining support for European integration. Instead of seeking to fit new policies into existing steering models designed for other objectives, the operational models need adaptation to these new policies and to new contextual conditions.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath highlights that it is not possible to effectively address challenges arising from fundamental structural shifts with the standard policy approaches that were in use before the crisis. The system’s leverage points need to be used in a different way in order to push it in the right direction. This will help the EU to be more agile strategically, to better deliver its promises and expectation, and to address legitimacy concerns.
This HLG is chaired by Nout Wellink, former Chairman of the Dutch Central Bank and member of the ECB Board.
European public governance innovation should have as twin objectives to improve the quality of democracy and simultaneously to ensure efficacious governance which delivers the desired outcomes. How to manage such a shift is the key of the project.
The HLG intends to look at the innovations needed in the governance system of the EU and how a system change could be realised. The HLG will not only look at the increase of efficacy of delivery but also at the balance between technocratic and democratic governance, taking into account a decline of functionalist economic views in favour of more ecological, cultural and social needs, as well as the rise of social unease (populism).
The following people, from the European and national public sector, from corporations and from academia, gave their time and expertise to the work on governance innovation:
Download: HLG Governance Innovation Members List
