Blog Articles

We hear about the impact of COVID on businesses but what about civil society organisations? Recently Social Platform and Civil Society Europe hosted a discussion on the state of civic space with civil society organisations from different sectors, from development to the environment and the social sector.

I’ve dedicated most of my working life to civil society because I know the value that civil society brings. We have people power, and we can reach out and listen to people who are often left out of decision-making. We have the experience on the ground of working with and for people, filling gaps in the system and empowering people to participate in society at all levels including politics, work, and education. Importantly, we also have the expertise and capacity to take the views of people and bring them together to form advocacy. That’s important because many citizens and people living in Europe just don’t have the time.

We provide a unique perspective that is really led by an interest in people, not profit or power but making policies that are driven by wellbeing, equality, and inclusion. Without civil society, we would still be at zero when it comes to including people with disabilities, the young and older people, people from ethnic and religious minorities, and those experiencing poverty. All these people have had their voices heard by civil society and we provide them with hope that the next EU policy that gets adopted won’t overlook them.

Is civic space under threat?

I am not usually one to focus on the negative, but the discussion we had with civil society was alarming. We share eerily similar experiences of being locked out, overlooked, unsupported, and underestimated – and these experiences have only been entrenched further during COVID. Those present reported a lack of access to decision-makers and limited space for dialogue, including at events where only institutional actors were invited to speak, with the blame placed on COVID restrictions.

The quality of civil dialogue was a major cause for concern, from tokenistic representation to concerns over how the quality of participation varies between the Parliament, Council, and Commission, and how this is affecting the Conference on the Future of Europe. If the quality of engagement is poor, people and organisations will feel left out and disengage with the EU. If you want more information, Civil Society Europe‘s study on civil dialogue sums up the problem nicely.

These are symptoms of undervalued civil dialogue, but the potential results of this are even more worrying. Policies and decisions regarding funding won’t answer to the real needs of people, and those same people won’t feel as if they’ve been included. This changes the perception not only of those policies, but the EU itself. Participative democracy isn’t just about the dialogue between the Council, the Parliament, and the Commission. Time and again, we are told that people don’t understand Europe, feel far away from it and don’t know what it does for them. To be truly inclusive, European democracy needs ways for marginalised people and interests to influence decisions.

Civil dialogue is central to European democracy, and by allowing it to be weakened we are weakening Europe. We need the institutions to reach an agreement on how to strengthen and formalise civil dialogue before it is too late.