Social Platform is committed to promoting a structured civil dialogue between civil society and the EU Institutions. This involves establishing regular consultation of NGOs, in order to provide channels for citizens to influence EU policy - a concept which has become known as participatory democracy.

The importance of participatory democracy has been recognised by the European Union in its renewed Lisbon Treaty - article 11 which considers participatory democracy as a fundamental democratic principle of the EU and proposes ways to organise dialogue with “representative associations and civil society”.

In 2007 Social Platform – the largest coalition of social NGOs at EU level – decided to undergo a two-year process to make concrete proposals as to how the Lisbon article 11 could be best implemented: Which infrastructures are necessary today to make this dialogue effective? How can people, via their associations, make their voice heard?

As part of this process, it organised in December 2009 a conference with 140 social activists from 24 European countries to further elaborate and discuss recommendations to EU decision-makers and to themselves.