By the EESC Civil Society Organisations’ Group

The European institutions should jointly develop unified guidelines for civil dialogue. An interinstitutional agreement could help, for example by assigning distinct roles and objectives to each institution according to its competences. The European institutions must also address capacity issues that prevent civil society organisations and institutions from fully engaging in dialogue.

These are some of the main recommendations of a new EESC study on Mapping civil dialogue practices in the EU institutions that was released on 16 July. The study was requested by the Civil Society Organisations’ Group and carried out by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). Two of its co-authors, Berta Mizsei and Timothy Yeung, presented the study’s key findings and recommendations at the launch event.

Séamus Boland, president of the Civil Society Organisations’ Group, said his group commissioned the study because an overview of current practice is essential for advancing civil dialogue in an efficient, sustainable and inclusive way at EU level.

The study identifies an increase in civil dialogue over the past 10 years but also that some challenges remain: ‘The study on current civil dialogue practice in the EU institutions found that the institutions and their departments still have different understandings of what structured engagement between them and civil society means. They organise civil dialogue differently and, in some cases, there is perceived competition between civil dialogue, direct democratic initiatives and elected representation.’  

The study not only takes stock of civil dialogue practice, but it also provides concrete recommendations for next steps. The co-authors, Ms Mizsei and Mr Yeung, said: ‘We agree with existing calls for the EU, including the EESC, to settle on a definition of civil dialogue and provide guidelines for implementing it, and that this should lead to an interinstitutional agreement on civil dialogue. The guidelines could be integrated into the Better Regulation toolbox to reflect the unique nature of civil dialogue.’ This agreement could also assign roles and objectives according to each institution’s competences and harmonise existing initiatives.

The publication of the EESC study comes at a crucial time. The European Commission has pledged to step up engagement with civil society and better protect civil society in its work during its 2024-2029 term. In addition, civil society faces numerous challenges in the face of geopolitical and socio-economic changes.

Read the full press release on the study.

The study and an executive summary are available on the EESC’s website.