Proceedings

Forum and Joint Research Centre of the European Commission have elaborated and
calculated the Environmental Performance Index as a response to information
technology developments and data-driven decisions that have transformed every
corner of society, from business to the green environment. EPI includes a set of
environmental indicators, which are calculated for areas with problems and which
should become factors of great interest in political decisions in every country.
Since everybody is talking about the economic crisis in negative terms only, we
believe that there can be some positive aspects, and one of them may be a greater
attention of the public, for the community in which they live, regarding to exacerbate
consumption of resources, which can also represent a starting point to sustainable
programs. Our study emphasizes that, although growth represents "the right hand" and
the ecological growth "the left hand", the right cannot work without the left and vice
versa. Thus, we made a comparative analysis between the environmental performance
indicator, calculated for the year 2008 for 149 countries, with GDP per capita,
calculated for 2008 using a statistical-econometric methodology.
1. BUDGETING FOR SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE -
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS
AND ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL PROGRAMS
Most countries are moving towards a form of sustainable performance-based budget,
where the medium-term expenditures with a focus on politics are included in program
budgeting. The translation of political priorities in results for the citizens requires that
the budget structure be supported by a programmatic approach. At the same time it is
important for the budgetary structures to not be so restrictive, as they may limit the
ability of administrative agencies to mobilize available resources to maximize
efficiency and effectiveness.
Australia has the most sophisticated performance-based budgeting system, but studies
have pointed out that this is not a criterion for cost-effectiveness (Petroka, 2009).
A gradual process would be more cost-effective because it combines expenditures
regarding policy development and program objectives, but also performance
indicators, establishing monitoring and evaluation systems. Most studies suggest that
monitoring and evaluation are the weak links in the chain for a sustainable budgeting,
because very often, there is a direct link between indicators, results and resource
allocation. From these essential parts of the process of understanding of what actually
works and what doesn’t, we will enrich the analysis basis which should support not
only the decisions regarding the fiscal space, but also the decisions regarding the
reallocation within the existing base, so going from underperforming to the green
performance through the implementation of environmental budgeting programs.
In the Netherlands, promises made by politicians during the electoral campaign,
represents the basis for assessing the government at the end of his four-year term. As
a consequence, the Dutch politicians are very careful in preparing the political
programs and therefore seek the help of the technocrats or the economic research
institutes, to prepare macro-economic projections and the estimated cost of electoral
programs they are proposing. The aggregated results are published before the
elections and environmental agencies make assessments regarding the impact of the
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