COWAM in practice a framework to promote the inclusive governance in radioactive waste management

In the 1990s many countries in Europe met difficulties to establish the ground for a sustainable management of radioactive waste. The main effort was focused on research to develop safe technical solutions for long term radioactive waste managing. In this general approach, a technical concept, chosen by national decision-makers on the basis of expert recommendations, is developed within a national policy framework. In a large number of countries throughout Europe and worldwide, this path very often turned into a dead end. Faced with regular and constant failures due to fierce public criticism, experts and policy makers gradually realized that the complexity of the issues called for a more open and inclusive management approach: the inclusive governance. It could be defined as the processes that engage the widest variety possible of citizen voices in managing common affairs involving local actors, stakeholders and experts with policy makers and implementers at all appropriate levels of government. Inclusive governance processes rely on interdependence between the organisations and actors engaged in collective action, recognizing that none of them has the resources and knowledge necessary to tackle the issue alone. Inclusive governance implies that actors belong to autonomous networks which can interact. It also implies that action can be taken without resorting to the power or the formal authority of the State. Governance is not a substitute of the traditional government but an alternate regime applicable to a large range of activities and organizations. The inclusive governance purpose is not to establish a new power, but to create, for the players involved in, the capability to influence, so that they will be able to change the current situation and to create a better life. Due to an inclusive participation, different than the subsidiary principle, the players can participate in different power levels (local, regional, national, international). The researches developed under the EC Framework Programs 5 and 6 in the radioactive waste management (RWM) envisaged not only the technical aspects but also the social and human aspects of this problem. Projects as COWAM, COWAM2, TRUSTNET and TRUSTNET in ACTION showed that this new approach should be considered, analyzed and understood, in order to be better used in solving the existing problems of radioactive waste disposal throughout Europe. A new project in this topic, COWAM, in Practice-CIP, started this year under FP6. It is conducted with a set of five countries with a significant RWM agenda in the next three years which will investigate inclusive governance of RWM and generate European guidelines. For Romania, one of the five countries participating in this project, CIP itself is an innovative process, well situated in a trend towards inclusiveness throughout Europe, a trend recognized and supported by the European Commission. (authors)