Hens Runhaar (Utrecht University & Wageningen University and Research Centre)
Peter Driessen (Utrecht University)
Christine Wamsler (University of Lund)
On 1-2 October 2015 the kick-off seminar of the working group on EPI took place. The venue of this seminar was the University Hall in the historical city centre of Utrecht.
During the seminar 12 EPI experts from various European countries discussed the conceptual foundations of EPI and related concepts such as climate policy mainstreaming, their origins and development over time, their influence on policy practices, and their performance in terms of environmental protection and sustainable development in general.
The seminar participants brought together insights from various contexts and sectors and developed new research questions that could guide future research on EPI. A mix of reflexive, critical, and instrumental questions were discussed in small groups.
Furthermore, the next steps of the working group were defined, namely the development of a joint position paper on EPI, a special issue which brings together state-of-the-art findings from research on EPI and explore new directions for future research, and a panel on EPI during a conference to expand the working group and diffuse its work.