Delta Commissioner’s Weblog - week 16, 2010
ON THE WAY TO THE FIRST DELTA PROGRAMME
This week, I made no regional working visits – it was a ‘The Hague’ week.
On Monday, my staff (my 15-strong dream team) and I discussed the ‘acceleration week’ for realising the Delta Programme. The week is my staff’s idea. In the week from 25 to 29 April, we will work together on the structure of the first Delta Programme. At the end of the week, we will have set out a 50% version. 'Writers' from the Ministries of V&W, VROM and LNV will be participating. It is a collective product. In May, we will expand the texts into a 90 % version. The month of June has been designated for completing the job as well as for various harmonisation rounds with regional partners, civil society organisations and the ministries. In early July, the Council of Ministers should receive a flawless and inspiring product to use in the decision-making process.
The first Delta Programme that I will be proposing is important because in terms of policy it represents the follow-up to the innovative recommendations of the Veerman Committee.
On Wednesday, I had an open and inspiring talk with Messrs Balk and Van Duijn. Roelof Balk is known for his work for Fondsenbeheer Nederland (public/private funds management) and has publically urged for a new structure for the Delta Fund (DF). Jaap van Duijn was a member of the Veerman Committee and is a supervisor of the Green Fund. Together with several members of my staff and the Director-General of Water Affairs (Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management), we explored the realistic possibilities for having fewer constraints on the fund and allowing other parties to be eligible for funding. How can we link a programme-based fund (which is what the DF is) with a financing fund? We set out the pros and cons.
At the end of the afternoon in my round of ‘getting to know’ the Ministers in the Delta Programme Ministerial Steering Group, I spoke with the Minister of Finance for half an hour. I informed him about my work, my special and innovative position and the preparations for the first Delta Programme. He was very interested and is looking forward to a practical and realistic document.
Thursday saw the weekly meeting of all the programme directors of the nine sub-programmes. This time, the policy directors of the three ministries were also present. We are drawing up the Delta Programme together. Once again, we discussed and explored everything collectively. The subjects were financing, the legal translation of our 'delta work', the method of organisation (flat, linking and horizontal) and the annotated table of contents of the first Delta Programme. The Director General of Water Affairs and several staff members were present for part of the meeting; the discussion was constructive and we made useful agreements. A lot of expertise, energy and involvement; a good atmosphere.