general report - EESC European Economic and Social Committee

GENERAL REPORT
Preliminary version
The Civil Society Day 2015 was held on 16 June 2015 and was organised in cooperation with the
EESC's Liaison Group with European civil society organisations (CSOs) and networks. Its title was 'Civil
dialogue: a tool for better legislation in the general interest'.
Almost 200 participants, from all levels of European organised civil society, took part in the
discussions and panel debates, including a good representation of national CSOs thanks to
cooperation with the European Commission.
OPENING SESSION
EESC Vice-President Jane Morrice opened this edition of Civil Society
Day by explaining that the question of how to improve civil society
participation is at the heart of the Liaison Group's work.
She highlighted that the EESC's goal was the creation of a real civil
dialogue, recalling that Article 11 of the Lisbon Treaty sets the scene
for participatory democracy at local, national and European level.
Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso, Vice-President of the European
Parliament (EP) started his presentation by saying that the EP is
currently reflecting on the European democratic deficit. He went on to
emphasise the need to strengthen dialogue with citizens at different
levels (local, national, European) and to reinforce European
democratic structures. More citizen participation would allow better
and stronger identification of citizens with the European level.
The "Europe of citizens" concept is taking time to solidify. The EP has always been a forum for
citizens to express their needs, notably through the tool of petitions. The European Citizens'

Initiative (ECI) needs both to be simplified and to gain political weight. The EP encourages citizens'
access to permanent information on the legislative process.
The EP already assesses the impact of adopted legislation, but this also must be evaluated by civil
society. Good legislation should limit the administrative burden for citizens and business and it
should be "simple and coherent" without advocating deregulation.
Civil society has to be active and to be listened to from the very earliest stages of defining the
political agenda. Greater transparency and democratic legitimacy is needed when drafting
legislation, in order to achieve more democratic legislation.
Marianne Klingbeil, Deputy Secretary General of the European
Commission, presented the main points of the Commission's better
legislation package and focused her presentation on the question of
how to make your voice heard. The following elements are key:
 Greater transparency around decision making processes
 Broader public consultations
 Improved impact assessments
 A new approach to reviewing the existing stock of EU legislation.
When planning new legislation, a roadmap is created and published on the website of the European
Commission. Comments can then be made and sent to the relevant service at the European
Commission. This allows for civil society participation ahead of the actual legislative process. The
formal adoption of the Commission proposal is followed by a 12-week consultation process.
Ms Klingbeil concluded her speech by presenting the REFIT platform, a regulatory fitness and
performance program that is soon going to be launched by the Commission.
Conny Reuter, Co-chair of the EESC's Liaison Group, presented the
three key words intended be the focus of this event. In his view, the
first one was "dialogue", by which he understood cooperation.
The second was "better legislation" and the connected question of
how to gauge quality, namely its social, economic and environmental
impact. Unfortunately, the social impact is often not taken into account. The perceived democratic
gap is due to the inability to deliver in terms of social aspects.
Finally, "general interest", which he defined as "the good cause". The most important aspects are
citizenship and citizens' rights. "We want better results!" he exclaimed to conclude the opening
session.

Panel: "Engaging citizens through civil dialogue"
Moderated by Bruno Kaufmann, editor in chief of
people2power.info, the morning session gave an overview of the
current situation at European level and featured a presentation of
the Riga Roadmap, as well as a discussion on the following topics:
 Toward general interest: the added value of CSOs
 Multi-level dialogue: local, regional and national aspects
of civil dialogue
 Better regulation, evaluation of EU policies and connected challenges: the role of CSOs
 CSOs as facilitators of new forms of engagement for citizens: the European Citizens' Initiative
and new forms of digital participation.
Luca Jahier, President of the EESC's Various Interests Group started his
presentation by remarking that Europe was at a turning point. The crisis
revealed the failures in the EU consultation processes. Furthermore, he
identified a problem of delivery capacity. Only a marginal role is given to
civil dialogue and citizens feel that "Brussels" is not doing enough. The
EU is now merely reactive instead of being proactive. He recalled the
difficulties encountered, for example, with the ECI tool.
According to him, the EU institutions should avoid multiplying consultations but should aim to
simplify those consultations in order to make them more open and effective. The EESC could offer a
structure for this, as well as for implementing Article 11. The EESC should take a leading role in
consultation. The EESC could organise a civil society convention, held over several days, with
European and national civil society organisations. Civil society organisations are essential in any
lively democracy and their role is to bridge the national and European levels.
David Garrahy, from the European Youth Forum, began his
presentation with a short reminder of the history of European civil
dialogue, which was a very slow construction process. The EESC has
always been a civil society facilitator and supporter. He then gave a
short introduction of the Riga Roadmap. The idea of the Roadmap for
EU civil dialogue is to propose a vision and specific steps for the
implementation of this civil dialogue. It should be "open, inclusive, and build on what already exists
and aim for better policymaking."
According to him, it is important to gather information about national dialogue, and all dialogue at
the European level should be taken into account. Dialogue at all levels of governance is necessary.
The support of public authorities at all levels is vital for these debates. An annual report on civil
dialogue would be beneficial. The Roadmap also contains a number of best practices, which could be

implemented across other levels. The ultimate goal of the Roadmap is to get citizens involved in the
EU.
Pierre Baussand from the Social Platform stated that the general
interest has to be at the heart of any legislation in the EU structure.
Every EU citizen should have the same rights.
Concerning the Commission's better legislation package and future
consultations, he underlined that any roadmap needs a common
definition of its destination. This is why civil society has to be consulted before the creation of a
roadmap, in order to participate in defining the destination.
Bernd Hüttemann, Vice President, European Movement
International, who spoke via Skype from Berlin, pointed out that when
we talk about civil dialogue, we are actually talking about "lobbying"
and "common interest".
The focus should be on the question of how pluralism and corporatism
are implemented in the different Member States. The national stakeholders' debates need to be
"Europeanised". We should build a more open system that is more inclusive, pluralistic and flexible.
Henning Klaus from the European Commission further explained the
details of the Commission's better legislation package. He emphasised
the importance of drafting initiatives based on as many different inputs
as possible.
He clarified that REFIT is not a platform for consultation, but aims to
create dialogue.
Assya Kavrakova from the European Citizen Action Service noted that
we are witnessing new forms of participation empowering citizens. We
need to develop both online and offline participation. It is vital not to
keep only one format of participation but to multiply them.
Civil society should carry out tests and help the Commission to develop
new participation tools.

Report on the three workshops
Atelier 1 - Comment rendre le dialogue civil plus efficace dans l’environnement décisionnel ?
Par Quentin Ariès
Une décision publique plus efficace et co-construite, un
environnement décisionnel ouvert et à l’écoute de la société et de
ses organisations, un dialogue civil qui permet aux associations
professionnelles, syndicats, advocacy groups de pouvoir participer et proposer de nouvelles idées
aux décideurs politiques. Tels étaient les grands enjeux sous-jacents de ce groupe de travail.
Les institutions européennes, en particulier la Commission sont incitées légalement à entretenir un
dialogue ouvert, transparent et régulier avec les associations représentatives et la société civile. Les
bases de ce dialogue sont inscrites à l’article 11 du Traité de l’UE mais force est de constater que ce
dialogue, ne marche pas, ou alors de manière très perfectible.
Plusieurs exemples ont pu être exploités au cours de cet atelier afin de
remédier à cet état de fait. Jan-Robert Suesser, de l’organisation
European Civic Forum s’est posé la question de la création d’un
observatoire sur l’évaluation du dialogue civil. Fondé sur les quatre
piliers du dialogue civil façonnés par le Conseil de l’Europe - la
transparence, l’indépendance, la participation et la responsabilisation –
un tel observatoire pourrait être un outil pour mesurer les considérations et les perspectives du
dialogue civil.
Mais la création d’un tel observatoire demandera une vraie volonté politique et sa pertinence dans
la capacité à générer des indicateurs co-construits avec les acteurs de la société civile. Les conditions
pour créer un tel observatoire sont bien de créer un climat de participation et surtout de confiance
dans la société civile. Il est essentiel que les acteurs plus institutionnels soient moins rétifs à un
observatoire indépendant et central pour toute réflexion sur le dialogue civil.
Daniel Freund, de l’ONG Transparency International est quant à lui
intervenu pour présenter brièvement le rapport à l’échelle
européenne sur le lobbying en Europe. Avec une analyse comparative
de près d’une dizaine de pays et de soixante indicateurs, force est de
constater qu’avant de pouvoir parler de dialogue civil, il faut pouvoir
tant aux niveaux nationaux qu’européen, développer une culture de
la transparence lors de la prise de décision publique.