Civil Society and Democracy in the EU: The Paradox of the European Citizens’ Initiative

Abstract

the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is hailed as an important tool for civic involvement in EU policy-making. Paradoxically, the legislative proposal introducing the ECI succeeded not because of large-scale public involvement, but due to strategic lobbying of policy-makers by civil society organisations (CSOs). This paper demonstrates that not all CSOs engaged in EU policy debates strive to foster broad civic participation. We can distinguish between two different models of organisations: issue-specific professionalised organisations that engage directly with decision-makers and broader-based citizen organisations, and social movements that seek to mobilise a wide section of society in order to voice their concerns in a public debate. The story of the ECI's genesis illustrates that structural problems inhibit CSOs in mobilising broad sections of the public in EU policy-making. Since CSOs are likely to be at the core of efforts to mobilise the necessary one million signatures for an ECI, this is likely to have implications for operationalising the ECI.

Key Words:

• Civil society organisations
• lobbying
• social movements

Notes

The Habermasian societal model consists of a centre (the state) and a periphery (the private sphere). These two spheres are connected by a third and intermediary sphere (the public sphere).

The empirical analysis in this section is based on semi-structured interviews with 35 CSOs in Belgium, Germany, France, Spain and the UK that sought to influence the Convention on the Future of Europe.

The ‘dialogue’ with civil society was managed predominantly through a website particularly established for receiving input to the Convention and to enable exchanges between organisations themselves. It was previously available at http://european-Convention.eu.int/forum.asp?lang=FR

The sample of 35 NGOs interviewed was taken from the register of CSOs that signed up to the Forum website, the electronic interface set up for CSOs during the Convention. It includes a range of different types of CSOs from large EU-based umbrella organisations to small national NGOs, as well as organisations focused on broader civic inclusion in general and issue-specific organisations.

The ESF is a sister movement to the World Social Forum, which emerged in the storm of protests that accompanied the 1999 WTO summit in Seattle.

http://www.act4europe.org/code/en/civi.asp?Page=2&menuPage=2