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ABSTRACT
EU political conditionality for candidate countries brings an unprecedented focus on transforming standards and practices of civil society engagement in policymaking and introduces a number of mechanisms for supporting reforms in this area. However, there is still not enough evidence on the effects of various conditionality mechanisms for various patterns of civil society policy engagement in countries on the path to EU accession. Drawing on theoretical approaches from Europeanization and interest group research, the paper seeks to analyse how various EU mechanisms influence the involvement, access and prominence of civil society organizations in national policymaking processes in the pre-accession phase. Based on the analysis of the cases of Serbia and Montenegro as the only two Western Balkans candidate countries which have started EU accession negotiations, it is argued that a clearer and more consistent application of EU conditionality can lead to more advanced civil society policy engagement, but its effectiveness depends on the genuine commitment of government bodies to proactive transparency and fundamental freedoms. It is also argued that purely formal government compliance with EU requirements can remain only a window dressing exercise and a source of legitimizing authorities’ decision-making processes without empowering effects on domestic civil society actors.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions, as well as Bert Fraussen and Fabienne Bossuyt for their inspiring comments on earlier versions of this article. The initial version of the article has been presented to the UACES 49th Annual Conference in Lisbon in 2019. I am grateful to all participants for the discussion and for their insightful remarks.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. For the purpose of this paper, we define civil society organizations as non-state, non-profit organizational actors or structures whose members serve the general public interest through a democratic process and that play the role of mediators between citizens and public authorities by seeking to influence policy outcomes. This broad definition is in accordance with the EU approach and includes non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but also economic and social interest groups such as trade unions and employers’ associations, as well as various grass-roots organizations (EESC Citation1999; Kohler-Koch and Quitkatt Citation2009). However, in the specific legislative context of study cases of Serbia and Montenegro, the term CSOs is often used synonymously with the term NGOs to cover associations (and foundations) as most numerous actors of organized civil society.
2. EU political conditionality can be broadly defined as the strategy or method used by the EU to encourage reforms in candidate and potential candidate countries in exchange for some rewards related to countries’ progress on the path to the EU accession (Grabbe Citation2005; Schimmelphenig and Schwellnus Citation2006).
3. Interview with Centre for Development of NGOs, 29 August 2019.
4. Interview with the Ministry of Public Administration, 28 August 2019.
5. Reports are available at: https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/countries/package_en.
6. Interview with Civic Initiatives, 25 October 2019.
7. Interview with Serbian Government Office for Cooperation with CSOs, 6 September 2019.
8. Interview with Centre for European Policy, 13 September 2019.
9. Interview with Ministry of Public Administration, 28 August 2019.
10. Interview with the Office for Cooperation with CSOs, 6 September 2019.
11. Interview with Ministry of Public Administration, 28 August 2019.
12. Interview with Centre for Development of NGOs, 29 August 2019.
13. Interview with NGO Institute Alternative, 2 October 2019.
14. Interview with Civic Initiatives, 25 October 2019.
15. Central e-participation platform in Montenegro is available at: http://www.euprava.me/eparticipacije while Central e-consultation platform in Serbia can be accessed here: http://javnerasprave.euprava.gov.rs.
16. Interview with Ministry of Public Administration, 28 August 2019.
17. Interview with NGO Institute Alternativa, 2 October 2019.
18. Interview with the Centre for Development of NGOs, 28 August 2019.
19. This view was shared by respondents from the National Resource Centre and the Ministry of Public Administration.
20. This view was shared by respondents from the Montenegrin Ministry of Public Administration and the Serbian Office for Cooperation with CSOs.
21. See for example the press release of Transparency International Headquarters concerning this case: https://www.transparency.org/news/pressrelease/ban_on_transparency_internationals_montenegro_partner_from_eu_anti_corrupti.
22. Interview with representative of Ministry of Public Administration, 28 August 2019.
23. Interview with the Centre for Development of NGOs, 29 August 2019.
24. Interview with Civic Initiatives, 25 October 2019.
Additional information
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Igor Vidačak
Igor Vidačak is Associate Professor of the Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia. He holds a PhD in Comparative Politics from the University of Zagreb and an MA in European Political and Administrative Studies from the College of Europe Natolin. He leads courses on the European Union political system, interest groups and lobbying in the EU, and EU enlargement. He published the first book on lobbying in the Croatian language (Lobiranje - Interesne skupine i kanali utjecaja u Europskoj uniji, 2007). As an international consultant, he has around twenty years of experience in supporting better governance and civil society policy engagement in EU enlargement and neighbouring countries.