Samenvatting

Ever since the recognition of the causality between earthquakes in the Region Groningen, gas production and the ensuing damage to houses and buildings in that area, government faces big challenges in policy-making. On the one hand liability for damages must result in fast and effective repair of houses and buildings and in safety safeguards for the infrastructure. On the other hand public trust in governmental institutions in the Earthquake area Groningen has to be restored.As a result of the advice of the Commission ‘Sustainable Future North East Groningen’ a comprehensive package of measures called ‘Trust in restoration, Restoration of trust’ (‘Vertrouwen op herstel, Herstel van vertrouwen’) was announced in which public-private partnerships were introduced for the purpose and in favor of the economic perspective of the region, including the establishment of local initiatives on sustainable energy, damage repair and guaranteeing a confidential approach by the government.Multiple actors are involved in the execution of this package of measures, since the competence of decision-making lies at State, regional and local level. Together with the emergence of public-private partnerships this all results in a very complex case of multi-level governance and policy-making.The central research question this paper addresses is whether public-private partnerships contribute in a legal and effective manner to policy-making following the package of measures ‘Trust in restoration, Restoration of trust’ in the Energy Port Region Groningen. The central question in this paper is whether the chosen form of governance attributes to a sustainable future of the region. This is done by a critical analysis of the Economic Board Groningen, being a public-private partnership-initiative in the earthquake area Groningen and its additional value in achieving the objectives of the comprehensive package of measures, including the above mentioned economic perspective in the Energy Port Region Groningen and related local energy initiatives. Analytical notions of multi-level governance will be integrated in concepts and discourses found in the literature on modes of governance and policy-making related to public-private partnerships. We will demonstrate a gap between effectual approaches of governance and regulatory impediments as well as a description of policy-accumulation in this multi-level governance setting.