FRAMEWORK AGREEMENTS

The networks ECAS and CEDAG have been working for years both on the issue of national compacts between Civil Society and national public authorities and on the issue of how to bring European Civil Society closer to the EU institutions.

On the basis of CEDAG’s work NCVO-has launched in June 2006 a position paper: “The European Union Concordat - A proposed Compact-style Agreement between the European Commission and Civil Society Organisations”. During the year 2007 CEDAG has organized two important seminars on these topics: "The European Civil Charter" (27.03.2007) and "How to improve European civil dialogue"(06.12.2007). Recently the Council of Europe has embarked on an initiative to recommend standards on relations with civil society to its 47 member states. Finally, a range of European associations are raising the issues of EU-civil society relations during the 2009 European election campaign. In close collaboration with CEDAG, the French CPCA brought the process one step further by organizing a large-scale European Colloque in Paris on December 14th 2007, bringing together the most important European actors on that issue. The following-up of this seminar was done by CPCA which published a reference study in May 2008: “Les secteurs associatifs et leurs relations avec l’Etat dans l’Europe des 27”.  

ECAS has created a new starting point with its publication (in French) “A European agreement with civil society for a less distant European Union?” At the European civic forum on 4-6 September 2008 in La Rochelle, ECAS presented a first version of the report summarising the key points of compacts and presenting some common features which could be relevant to a European framework agreement. The report has been revised and the description covers England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Poland and Sweden. It is the first time that this type of new government-civil society instrument has been studied in a European perspective. It is based on the idea that instead of re-inventing the wheel with an exclusively European-level approach to relations with civil society the EU should build on the agreements in member states.