by Lars Josephsen

This first final, two-day CINEFOGO conference was prepared with the aim of presenting some broad issues related to the general engagement of the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence in deepening the understanding of the role of civil society and new forms of governance in Europe, and the making of European citizenship. The conference focused on two comprehensive themes: (A) ‘Social rights and social reality in the European Union’, and (B) ‘Active citizenship, participation and governance’, - both themes of high relevance for broader discussions between policy makers and researchers at European and national levels.

By highlighting the mentioned themes and by placing the conference in Brussels, CINEFOGO coordinators intended to make the conference attractive not only to CINEFOGO partners and other European scholars, but also to EP members, EU officials and representatives from European citizen organizations and media, and thereby stimulate cross-border debates between a variety of stakeholders in European social policy formation on the many aspects of how to develop a ‘European social model’.

The conference was held under the auspices of Mr. Vladimir Spidla, at that time EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Commissioner Spidla addressed the conference in a speech at the opening plenary meeting.

In his speech, Mr. Spidla expressed his hope that the Lisbon Treaty would enter into force soon. This would imply that the Charter of Fundamental Rights will be directly enshrined in Community Law, and thereby strengthen the basis for development of social rights of European citizens, and for the fight against social exclusion and poverty. Equal treatment, gender equality and access to social services of general interest are all examples of rights included in the Charter. Mr. Spidla concluded by stating that “the participation of civil society and NGOs is an integral part of this ‘European social model’, which must be constantly improved ….”.

The conference programme included four topics for each of the two main themes:

Four topics of theme (A)

• Social protection and support

• Social Services and third sector organizations

• Gender division of labour. Conditions for families and work-life- balance

• Social inclusion of immigrants
  

Four topics of theme (B)

• Civic cultures and democratic participation

• New forms of governance between private and public

• European identity and diversity

• EU governance and civil society

A forthcoming publication will document the content of the conference. The publication will be published by Nomos Publishers and will include plenary speeches and presentations connected to the eight sessions.  

This programmed list of topics indicates the variety of aspects to be covered when examining the two conference themes and illustrates at the same time the broadness of the underlying work packages defined through the CINEFOGO activities.

This is not the right place for a detailed account on all material offered at the eight topical session at the conference. However an example may give an indication of the richness of findings presented and discussions that took place during the conference. Session no. 4 under theme B has been selected as illustrative example. A summary of this session is written and kindly made available for CINEFOGO Newsletter by Matthias Freise, who acted as session moderator.

Summary of the panel discussion B4   “EU governance and Civil Society“

by Matthias Freise (freisem@uni-muenster.de)

Panel B4 concluded the thematic thread on active citizenship, participation and governance by focussing on the civil society related discourses in various governance arrangements of the European Union and its practical implementation. Central aspects of the panel session were the current debates in EU politics that are questioning the established political classes and the state institutions. The leading question was how the EU and organized civil society in Brussels currently try to enhance the possibilities of active participation.

The panel session was opened by Carlo Ruzza from Leicester University who gave an overview on the various strands of the civil society discourse on the European level. He pointed out that civil society is discussed in Brussels as a kind of panacea for all seasons that is supposed to fulfil several functions to overcome democratic deficits of EU governance, among them advocacy, policy-pressure, information-providing, minority-representation, monitoring of policy-making, political-societal interaction, and political communication. Ruzza showed that there is empirical evidence that organized civil society can really fulfil some of these functions. However, he also warned to overestimate the performance of civil society actors and referred to several problems of accountability, transparency, representativeness, and openness of civil society involvements in EU governance.

Taco Brandsen from Nijmegen University presented results from the EU-funded Third Sector European Policy project (TSEP) which aimed to answer the question how national third sectors as “institutionalized hearts of civil society” connect with EU policymaking. Brandsen showed that there is currently taking place a growth of Euro-specialists within the national third sectors. However, difficulties remain in connecting European and national issues. Many times Euro-specialists are isolated within their organizations. Brandsen concluded that establishing a presence for the third sector at the European level is an incremental and warned simultaneously that there is a danger in inflating expectations in these organizations.

Laëtitia Sédou from the EU Civil Society Contact Group portrayed the activities of her organization and illustrated the major challenges for the upcoming years. From her point of view reinforcing of a collective identity as civil society actor whilst respecting sectors’ specificity and autonomy is a crucial problem for the Contact Group. At the same time she insistently advocated for the development of a common narrative on civil and more transparency of decision making processes in EU governance.

Finally, Ariane Rodert from CEDAG present different examples of ways organized civil society mediates citizens’ interests in European governance by discussing the Code of Good Practice for Civil Participation and the EU Charter for Civil Society. She concluded that there is still a lack of a coherent structure for civil dialogue across the European institutions.

In the following discussion several speakers demanded a coherent structure of civil dialogue and claimed that business organizations should not be classified as civil society actors. The discussion also made clear that keeping alive network structures between civil society actors, policy makers and the interdisciplinary CINEFOGO scientists is very desirable to further promote analytical as well as normative research on the functions and possibilities of civil society involvement. Concerning empirical research on civil society the panel session made also clear that the existing measurement tools of civil society and its benefits are still ill-conceived.