EU strategy to support, protect and empower civil society

Key points

The EESC:

• highlights the importance of civil society for democratic societies and the importance of the its own role in civil dialogue and civic participation at European level;

• underlines that a strategy and civil dialogue platform should go hand in hand with better inter-institutional cooperation and dialogue regarding the EESC's recommendations;

• calls for the adoption of an interinstitutional agreement on civil dialogue, facilitated by the EESC, to ensure consistent civil dialogue practices across EU institutions;

• proposes launching a pilot project for a civil society platform in partnership with the European Commission that would establish a broad dialogue starting at the early stage of the political process, which would as a first step concentrate on democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law. This platform would:

  • guide dialogues on democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law, and later contribute to key political processes and for example to the Commission’s annual work programme;

  • host to an annual civil dialogue conference to present and refine draft recommendations together with all involved stakeholders;

  • monitor civil dialogue through an annual scoreboard, feeding into biennial civil dialogue reports.

• calls for adequate provisions for strengthening European civil dialogue at all levels, and more specifically provide funding for the realization of the Civil Society Platform. The proposed pilot project would allow the European Commission to test a broad consultation practice using limited additional resources, given that most part of the tools are already operational.