Time to act on the Future of Europe

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Time to acton the Future of Europe
 

www.act4europe.org


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Overview

• The why and how of ENGOs
• EU Institutions and their relevance
• Constitution Process
• Participatory Democracy

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Why is the EU relevant for NGOs

• Impact the Hungarian villages relevance.
• Exceptional openness for dialogue, the special
  nature of some EU institutions.
• Complicated subject matter and expertise.
• Solidarity and information exchange on joint
  issues or minorities the power of accumulated
  voices.
• Powerful role of national members of ENGOs
  holding their government to account, scrutinizing
  national and European responsibility. Pushing
  Presidency to put points of concern on the
  agenda, give money, and invite ENGOs to important
  Council meetings.

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EU NGO Structure

• There are hundreds of thousands of NGOs in the
  European Union and beyond.
• Many are organised on the European level
  (umbrella networks). Generally ENGOs are based on
  added value and membership representation
  principle.
• Each sector of NGOs has created its own European
  platform or representation.
• Cross-sectoral platform (CSCG) on horizontal
  issues (only added value approach)

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Civil Society Contact Group
1 representative asObserver
2 representatives
1 representative asObserver
CSCG

2 representatives
2 representatives
2 representatives
2 representatives
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• Establishing a cross-sectoral dialogue during the
  Constitutional process
• To bring CSCGs vision out of Brussels and make
  information accessible
• To build a working alliance of NGOs and Unions
  all over Europe
• To give substance to the concept of
  participatory democracy and civil dialogue

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Next Steps

• Establishing lasting partnerships and fostering
  cross-sectoral cooperation in New Member States.
  
• Providing analysis of the new Constitution and
  information on the process of ratification.
• NGO conference on Civil Dialogue
• NGO toolkit on Civil Dialogue and ratification
• NGO training seminars on access to EU debates
• Study on Participatory Democracy

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European Institutions

• European Commission
• College of Commissioners
• Cabinets
• Directorate Generals
• Advisory Committees
• Sole right of initiative (apart from
  intergovernmental areas e.g. CFSP)
• Committed itself to developing better
  governance, broader consultation and civil
  dialogue (Barroso re-newed emphasis)
• White Paper on Governance
• Minimum Standards of Consultation
• New Article I-47 of European Constitution
• Statistics and EU programme summaries
• Calls for tender and projects proposals.
  Core-funding for ENGOs.

• Council of the EU
• National governments, structured into Councils
• Legislative and executive role
• Presidency 6-monthly rotation between Member
  States. Currently the Netherlands.
• Permanent Representations
• COREPER ( approx. 250 committees)

• European Parliament
• 732 MEPs, only directly elected Body
• Committees (20 rapporteurs)
• Political Groups
• Intergroups
• Legislative, budgetary, and supervisory powers -
  Expansion of co-decision in Constitution.

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European Economic and Social Committee and
Council of Regions

• EESC Rather marginalized role in
  decision-making, but obliged to give evaluation
  of legislative proposals. Organized in 3 groups,
  employers, employees, diverse interests. For NGOs
  not representative because government appointed
  New ENGO Liaison Group
• CoR representing the federal structures of many
  countries, little official influence, but a lot
  of background influence.

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European Law

• Complicated and easy
• Three pillars
• Many European Communities and the European Union
• Soft and hard law

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Decision-making in the EU
The Council

• Passes laws
• Co-ordination of
• Economic policies
• Approval of EU budget

European Commission
Legislative proposal

• Right of innitiative/ propose legislation
• Implementation of EU
• Policies and budget
• Enforcement of
• EU law

European Parliament

• Shares with the Council
• Decision
• Authority over the EU
• budget.

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Decisionmaking procedures of EU between the
European Parliament and the Council

• Every European law is based on a specific treaty
  article, referred to as the legal basis of the
  legislation (the article that gives the EC the
  authorisation to act in a specific field). The
  European Commission, when proposing a new law,
  must choose which decision-making procedure to
  follow, and the choice will depend on which
  Treaty article the proposal is based on.
• Consultation procedure Parliament merely gives
  its opinion. If Parliament asks for amendments,
  the Commission will consider all the changes
  Parliament suggests. If it accepts any of these
  suggestions it will send the Council an amended
  proposal.
• Assent The procedure is the same as in the case
  of consultation, except that Parliament cannot
  amend a proposal - it must either accept or
  reject it.
• Codecision procedure Parliament genuinely shares
  power with the Council. The Commission sends its
  proposal to both institutions. They each read and
  discuss it twice in succession. If they cannot
  agree on it, it is put before a "conciliation
  committee", composed of equal numbers of Council
  and Parliament representatives.

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Decision-making in the Council

• Qualified majority voting (QMV)
• The most common form of voting procedure.
• The number of votes each country can cast are
  different and depend on the
• population size of the Member State.
• Until 1st of May 2004 it requires 62 out of 87
  votes.
• From November 2004, a qualified majority will be
  if a majority of Member States and if a specified
  minimum number of votes is cast in favour. The
  actual number will depend on how many new Member
  States have joined, but cannot acceed 73,4 (10
  New MS 253 out of 345 votes).
• In addition, a Member State may request
  verification that the Member States constituting
  the qualified majority represent at least 62 of
  the total population of the Union. If that
  condition is shown not to have been met, the
  decision in question shall not be adopted.
• Constitution 55 of Member States and 65 of
  population.
• Unanimity Consensus !

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• QUESTIONS

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Constitution Debate and ENGOs

• Many EU umbrella networks monitored and lobbied
• All NGO sectors monitored and lobbied
• 4 NGO sectors got together to give Civil Society
  as a whole a strong voice act4europe to
  involve national NGOs
• Civil Society Hearing vs traditional lobbying
• Closed IGC process but successful campaigns

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European Constitutional Treaty Outcome

• Acquis achieved
• Big steps Values, Objectives, Participatory
  Democracy, Charter, Horizontal Clauses, exclusion
  Euratom, EP power increase, Transparency, easier
  legal concept . it might maybe work? better
  than Nice?
• Problems Part III inclusion, no thorough
  reform, lack of European movement behind it.

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Article I-47 Participatory Democracy
1. The Union Institutions shall, by appropriate
means, give citizens and representative
associations the opportunity to make known and
publicly exchange their views on all areas of
Union action. 2. The Union Institutions shall
maintain an open, transparent and regular
dialogue with representative associations and
civil society. 3. The Commission shall carry out
broad consultations with parties concerned in
order to ensure that the Union's actions are
coherent and transparent.
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Art. I-47 Participatory Democracy
4. Not less than one million citizens who are
nationals of a significant number of Member
States may take the initiative of inviting the
Commission, within the framework of its powers,
to submit any appropriate proposal on matters
where citizens consider that a legal act of the
Union is required for the purpose of implementing
the Constitution. European laws shall determine
the provisions for the procedures and conditions
required for such a citizens initiative,
including the minimum number of Member States
from which such citizens must come.
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Participatory Democracy

• Civil Dialogue a tool of participatory
  democracy
• Participatory Democracy is complimentary to
  Representative Democracy
• Civil Society and its organisations important
  stakeholders, monitoring of peoples needs, add
  value to the political process. Recognition of
  subsidiarity.
• Horizontal dialogue between different parts of
  Civil Society on areas of general interest
  promotes social cohesion.

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Participatory Democracy

• Implementing Art I-47 must focus on both content
  and structure.
• Content should be guided along values and
  objectives and along areas of exclusion that
  are of high concern to a large number of citizens
• In terms of structure real participation and a
  meaningful dialogue need

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Participatory Democracy

• An enabling environment
• Information
• Representativity
• Resources
• Application throughout the policy process
• Access
• Transparency
• Evaluation

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Time to acton the Future of Europe
www.act4europe.org