Strengthening civil dialogue and participatory democracy in the EU: a path forward

Key points

The EESC:

• stresses that the implementation of Article 11 TEU, as a follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), while strengthening the role of the EESC, can lead to more effective policies. It supports the CoFoE recommendation to develop additional instruments of participatory democracy. Several of its recommendations involve building a conducive framework on civil dialogue and it recognizes the role of the EESC, also as a potential real hub for citizen panels. The specific role of social partner organisations should be fully respected in social dialogue structures and processes, with civil dialogue being a separate process;
• calls as a first step for a strategy for civil dialogue, resulting in an action plan, which could include a pillar as part of the European Defence of Democracy Package. Additionally, this could be aimed at considering seeking an interinstitutional agreement among EU institutions, that sets out actions and the related resources to be used. This could be facilitated by the EESC, with the participation of civil society networks at EU level;
• advocates that the role of those in charge in the different institutions be strengthened in order to make Article 11 TEU effective, and that certain standards be applied across EU institutions, such as the meaning of civil dialogue, the sharing of the policy agenda and priorities, the inclusion of vulnerable groups, etc;
• calls for an annual civil dialogue (or civic space) scoreboard on CSOs contribution to consultation processes with the reasoning for whether their contributions have been taken on board or not. The impact assessment through an annual scoreboard could result in a biennial Civil Dialogue Report, tracing the EU's engagement with civil society in general, and evaluating the state of play of civil dialogue and the effectiveness of CSOs;
• reiterates that the EESC must be at the heart of moves to strengthen participatory democracy in and between the European institutions and proposes adapting the EESC's role to allow for experimentation with a range of participatory instruments, such as citizens' panels, in its advisory work, thus highlighting the special place of the EESC as the institutional guardian of civil society consultation and civil dialogue in general;
• considers that CSOs must be founded on internal democracy, autonomy, and transparency; they must take the form of a not-for-profit model, working in the general, and/or specific interest of their constituents, and thus be legitimate and representative. It, therefore, calls for an accreditation mechanism based on the principles mentioned above.