Civil Society within the EU
Apart from day-to-day help and advice for NGOs dealing with the EU, ECAS is running three main projects:
1. Civil society as a partner in EU Cohesion policy
COOPERATE
In the run-up to enlargement of the Union in May 2004, ECAS, with no support of Compagnia San Paolo, organised training sessions and conferences for officials and NGOs for new member states on the concept and practice of partnership in the context of EU cohesion policy. This activity had a positive impact on empowering a number of participants to negotiate third sector access to EU structural funds, even though an ECAS publication by Brian Harvey "The Illusion of Inclusion" showed that there is a long way to go. After a conference in Turin in October 2005, this activity came to the notice of DG Regional Policy which offered ECAS a slot to organise a civil society forum.
OPEN DAYS
On 7 October, 2009, the third annual civil society forum will take place in the context of open days which brings over 5,000 representatives of regions and cities to Brussels. It is a great opportunity for networking. The forum has become an annual rendez-vous for third sector representatives to meet and compare what is happening with the application of the funds in their country. Read more...
Research on the implementation of the partnership principle across the member states. Thanks to lobbing by European NGOs including ECAS, civil society is mentioned as a partner in article 11 of the basic regulation on the structural funds 2007-2013. But how is this working in practice? ECAS in alliance with the Managing Authority of Sachsen-Anhalt and a group of other regions will carry out preliminary research for the open days event of 7 October.
2. Framework agreements between civil society and national governments
For the European civic days in La Rochelle in September 2008, ECAS prepared a fiarst analysis of framework agreements or "compacts" between civil society and national authorities. The up-dated version of this publication "un accord europeen avec la societe civile pour une union europeenne moins deistante?" should be further developed to cover more than the 11 countries so far, and to produce a more technical toolkit comparing how different aspects of the relationship between civil society and public authorities are handled: access to information, consultation, funding rules, settlement of disputes, oversight of such agreements. The idea of a European public sphere often appears disconnected. The idea here is to link consideration of EU relations with civil society to the most advanced national practices. ECAS is working closely together with CEDAG, national platforms and Swedish organisations. There is a recent agreement between the Swedish government, national idea-based organisations in the social sphere and the Swedish associations of local authorities adn regions. And, the second half of 209 is the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council of ministers. Will the Lisbon Treaty which recognises the "principle of participatory democracy" come into force? What will be the attitude of the next European Commission and European Parliament towards relations with civil society? This project is a way to test the water. Read more...
3. A European Civil Society House in Brussels
ECAS is working on the basis of the concept paper on the idea of bringing together a number of associations working on European citizenship and civil society development to create a joint service, making Brussels much more accessible. There are two tasks: to bring together a group of European associations, whilst looking for suitable premises. ECAS is working closely with Ethical Properties Ltd an Oxford based company which has experience in putting NGOs together in the same premises and supplying common services. If you or your organisations are interested, please let us know. Read more...
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