EUROPE: New Push for Pro-EU Reform

By Zoltán Dujisin Reprint | | Print |

Zoltán Dujisin

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, Apr 4 2008 (IPS) - The EU wants to use civil society to promote pro-EU reforms in the governments of its southern and eastern European neighbours – and civic actors seem to be willing to play along in what looks like a win-win situation.

A conference on ‘Giving a stronger voice to civil society in the European neighbourhood’ took place on Apr. 2 in Brdo in Slovenia, under the auspices of the Slovenian presidency of the European Union, which has included the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the empowerment of civil society among its priorities.

The Slovenian rotating presidency has made calls for greater civil society involvement in the promotion of democracy, human rights and stability in the region, with a view on aiding EU integration of Eastern European and Western Balkan countries.

Hoping to send a clear political message to the EU and national governments, civic actors from south-east and eastern Europe jointly approved a statement calling on the EU to help create an enabling environment in its neighbourhood, and formalise regular consultations between Brussels, national governments and civil society.

The aim of participants was to empower civic actors in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood, a controversial step for governments in countries such as Serbia, Belarus or Russia who see activists as often concealing politically subversive objectives.

“Civil society has a key role in enlargement, and is the reason for our increased emphasis on civil society dialogue,” Jan Truszczynski, Deputy Director General of the Enlargement Directorate-General at the European Commission told participants at the opening session.

“Civil society is growing and becoming better organised, EU institutions should pay more attention and improve their partnerships with them,” Anita Pipan from the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at the same session.

Truszczynski admitted that “NGOs are very often relegated to the role of the poor cousin”, and called for “a long-term conscious political effort by politicians, civic actors and opinion leaders.”

During his keynote address, Truszczynski also had warnings for politicians from countries aspiring to further EU integration, saying they should “nurture and expand social capital in all possible ways, because the time to do it is now.

“European integration is a useful additional tool,” Truszczynski told IPS. “Given the priorities of European integration in enlargement countries we see that by using the carrot of European integration we can better influence changes in candidate countries, changes aimed at better conditions for an organic growth of civil society and better, serious consultation of civil society stakeholders by governments.”

But local civil society called on the EU to engage more directly with both civic actors and national governments.

“The EU should support the sustainability of civic partners, not only financing but influencing the decision-making processes,” Goran Djurovic, Executive Director of the Montenegrin Centre for Development of NGOs told the conference. “Otherwise it will be difficult to establish values on which the EU is based.”

Truszczynski told IPS the EU commission was in no position to pressure other governments to integrate civil society in its decision-making processes.

“Efforts are more in terms of dialogue and showing good practice in member states than on pressure on national authorities,” he told IPS. “In our annual reports we can make references to the gaps regarding the funding of civil society organisations or in the countries’ legislations on foundations and associations,” the EU official said.

But the entire effort could fail if the actors involved fail to see the key is in strengthening smaller NGOs, which Tony Venables, Director of the Belgium-based European Citizen Action Service claims represent “90 percent of civil society.

“In the process of democratic reform and economic change what is often difficult is to maintain the social capital at the local level and keep a sense of community and of people having control on their own lives at the local level,” he told IPS.

Admitting the problem was particularly pungent in Eastern Europe, Venables said that without smaller NGOs “you don’t really have a civil society, just larger NGOs in the capital cities and national branches of international NGOs.

“The real density and richness of civil society is at the local level, in the thousands of associations citizens form for their own interests for a wider common purpose,” he added.

His comments were in tune with many participants’ complaints that civil society’s bottom-top input has been so far neglected by policy-makers in the EU and especially national governments in the EU’s neighbourhood.

Participants also reiterated that the EU’s dialogue with civil society could not be kept at an informal level at the risk of civic actors not being taken seriously by national governments, and called for the EU to urgently formalise the consultations.

While most civic representatives were satisfied with the EU’s promises for support, Venables shared some concerns with IPS. “We are worried civil society may be seen as a convenient tool for the reform process, and what we are trying to say is that civil society should be seen as good in its own right.”