Press Release: December 7th, 2009

Contact:

Tony Venables

Britney Wehrfritz

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European Civil Society House: One Step Forward

On December 4^th ECAS held the first open meeting for its ambitious European Civil Society House project. The meeting was held at Mundo B [1] in Brussels, an NGO house focused on sustainable development. Frederic Ancion of Ethical properties ltd. presented the facilities of the house, such as “the hive“(where workers share desk space), the common facilities, meeting room and reception area. Other examples were mentioned during the meeting, such as “the Hub” where social entrepreneurs meet to share new ideas and collaborate on various projects.

Tony Venables, ECAS Director, said NGO’s needed to follow in the footsteps of the environmental movement which is further ahead, and create a similar facility for associations in areas in which European activity is more recent such as civil liberties, active citizenship and participatory democracy.   

ECAS spent its early years helping to set up new European associations- now the challenge is to bring them together to increase capacity and support by sharing facilities. Ideas and possible models for making the house as much virtual as real, and most importantly accessible from anywhere in the Union, were presented. Participants were enthusiastic about the possibilities and suggested that a virtual house could and should be set up as quickly as possible and realistically even before the actual building is established.

ECAS currently estimates the project will take three years. So far the idea of creating a European Civil Society House has received a reasonable amount of political support. An amendment by Jean Lambert MEP was accepted by the European Parliament’s Committees on constitutional affairs and Budgets during the negotiations for the 2010 budget, but without an amount attached. [2]  

  It is now up to NGOs to prove there is a need for this project and convince the European Parliament to put money on the new budget line accordingly.

ECAS would encourage a public-private partnership approach, since foundations are also becoming involved in creating a common space.

  The meeting was chaired by Monica Frassoni who said: “I think one aspect of this project follows an approach already tried and tested in many association houses. What is original here is the broad approach to civil society and that the help-desks for NGO’s whether virtual or face-to face could also be adapted to individual citizens”. 

  From her own experience in the European Parliament, Frassoni stressed the need for the provision of sound independent legal advice so that more citizens would present better petitions, complaints or requests to the European Ombudsman and above all see them followed up. It was also a good idea that such a facility for citizens could provide help and support for citizens’ initiatives under the Lisbon Treaty whereby over 1 million people from a significant number of countries could request the Commission to propose legislation.

Participants advised ECAS on the need to situate this project so that it does not overlap with other ways to develop civil society. The house should be a practical facility, not an umbrella body. It should also seek to support the efforts of the EU to reach out to civil society for example through the Economic and Social Committee or the European Parliament’s Agora. 

The next step will be to design a market survey on the basis of the consultation with the participants, which will be launched across the Union and in neighbouring countries with the help of NGOs and Associations in Brussels starting in January 2010.

[1] http://www.mundo-b.org/

[2] More background information on the amendment by Jean Lambert, and about this project in general is available at http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/172/205/