Title: The Concept and Development of the Civil Dialogue at EULevel
Abstract: This paper analyzes the concept of civil dialogue as well as its development
in the EU level. Civil dialogue is an expression of participatory democracy;
therefore the participation of citizens in decision-making and policy is
essential to democracy. However, democracy becomes quite complicated
when discussing the issue at the European level because of the structure of
the European Union which is based on an ad-hoc approach. The other
reason for the increasing validity of the dialogue with citizens in the Union
should search for partial and troubling results of public opinion surveys
that show a low level of understanding of mechanisms of action of the
European institutions among citizens of the member states of EU. As
result, French and Dutch referenda on the Constitutional Treaty have
shown that there is a serious disconnection between citizens and policy
makers at the European level. Therefore, the role and contribution of CSOs
(especially NGOs) in the process of EU policy is extremely increased, in the
last decades. Civil dialogue between civil society and public institutions at
all levels is seen as a powerful tool that could help improve communication
and citizen participation in decisions and policies made. Still difference in
the level of development of the dialogue between the various EU
institutions and NGOs is directly related to the degree of their work. From
all EU institutions, European Commission has made the most progress in
formalizing and institutionalizing consultations and dialogue with NGOs.
Importance of growing engagement NGOs within the EU is indeed
evaluated, both in terms of the policy process, and as a contribution to
solving the democratic deficit through more participating forms of
participation. The aim of this paper is to review the current practice of the
civil dialogue at EU level through the analysis of several cases, and through
them deficiencies and problems of previous practices of dialogue between
the EU and NGOs will be shown.
Keywords: European Union, Civil Dialogue, Democratic Deficit,
Participatory Democracy, Ngos, European Commission.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-05-10
Language: en
Type: article
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