Civil Society in European institutional discourses

During the last decade, and particularly in the last few years, the concepts of ‘civil dialogue’ and ‘civilsociety’ have found places in the discourses of the European institutions. The role of civil societyorganisations in ‘international governance structures’ has already been noted, specifically in the context ofthe United Nations (UN) system where non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play an important role indevelopmental policy. At the end of the 1990s, social protests at various world summits also brought theemergence of a transnational movement, with the potential to both contest current international governancestructures and to provide collaboration for their reform, into the spotlight. while civil dialogue is intended to provide bottom-up inclusion of those excluded, it is alsosupposed to lead to a top-down initiated broad debate on European issues. If one should question theextent to which ESC members are able to return to the roots of their organisations, the same questionshould also be posed to the associations organised at European level, which are the primary focus of theEuropean Commission’s civil dialogue. When organisations have been established at the European level,the distance between the representatives in Brussels and their home roots often appears difficult to bridge.It has been argued that the internal governance procedures of the European associations are not sufficientlydemocratic so as to make them key actors in the socialisation process necessary for the democratisation ofthe EU