“The focus in the future will be on the construction of a legitimate Constitutional order for Policy-making responsive to the desires of National governments and their citizens”.
(Moravscik and Nikolaidis, 1998)
Sequential treaties and treaty reforms - the Treaty of Paris in 1952(European Coal and Steel Community), the Treaty of 1957 (where the European Economic Community was established), the Single European Act in 1987, the Maastricht Treaty (which “gave birth” to the European Union), the Amsterdam Treaty (1999), the Nice Treaty in 2003 and the “Constitutional Treaty” which is not yet ratified - have given to the European Institutions the today’s form and power.
The European Union since the Treaty of Rome has more or less the same structure. The modern discipline (Simon Hix, 1999,p.12) dates from the end of the nineteenth century, when people such as Woodrow, Robert Michels, Knut Wicksell, Lord Bryce and Max Weber first developed tools and categories to analyze political institutions, including bureaucracies, governments, parliaments and political parties. The changes that have occurred aimed to the
improvement of the effectiveness of the Institutions. The Commission, the Parliament and the Council together with the European Court of Justice -established in the 1950s - hold the most significant power in the EU; the power of decision making. From the formation of this structure there were often spectacular battles between the Institutions; these resulted in co-changes to the legislature procedure and in today’s formation. As Simon Hix(1999)said “actors act upon their preferences in a rational way by pursuing strategy that is more likely to produce the outcome they want”(p.12).
Institutions for Europe
The classic description of the distribution of power between EU Institutions - the Commission proposes, the Parliament advises and the Council decides - does not apply in the modern form of the Union, simply because through the Treaties and Treaty reforms the legislature procedure became more complicated and more credential, though not perfect yet.
The legislative powers and impact of the EP “have grown dramatically since its inception and especially over the last twenty years” (Amie Kreppel,2002,p.4). The establishment of elections by the people as well as the substantial treaty revisions all included provisions to validate the legislature role of the EP.
The Commission, on the other hand, was always the most misunderstood institution and the main recipient of criticism. John McCormick(1996) argued that for some analysts, Brussels has become a codeword for some vague and threatening notion of government by bureaucracy, or “creeping federalism”(p.104). Nowadays nevertheless, the Commission has not as much power as in the past, and is being successively reduced while those of the others institutions increase.
Last but not least the Council becomes co-legislator in an increasing number of policy areas and obtains a growing political impact. Desmond Dinan (1999) argues that even though it is especially important for the Council to work closely with the EP, their relationship is far touchier than the Council-Commission relationship (p.241). The European Parliament always confronted the Council as the lighthouse of intergovernmentalism.
As the EC/EU has grown in size, as more complicated polity areas came into the agenda; different economical conditions, different national and ideological interests, different socio-political targets, and many more factors created a new Europe in which the Institutions have to obtain prosperity.
Contemporary Institutions
When the EP was established, and certainly for most of its half century story, its Members had no big chance to influence policy-making. It was the only institution that represented “the citizens of Europe” but could not do much to directly induce the EU policy process.
Successively treaties changed the balance in the decision-making process of the European Union. The Single European Act in 1987, the Maastricht (1993) and Amsterdam (1999) Treaties generated the legislative face of the Union. The Commission would no longer be the only Institution that could propose legislation, as much as the Council would no longer be the only Institution that could decide. Sequentially, one treaty to another the Institutions would be obliged to interact and work together to produce legislation. Amie Kreppel (2002) had characteristically said that the EP has evolved from an ideologically dogmatic, loosely organized chamber of debate to a frequently bipartisan and hierchically structured legislative body (p.8).
The EU Institutions generate five types of policies: macroeconomic, citizen, regulatory, expenditure and foreign. There are two main
processes for them to be established:
Ÿ through supranational processes, where the initiative belongs to the Commission and,
Ÿ through intergovernmental processes, where the Council is the leading executive and legislative body.
Comitology:
The Commission is not as free as most people think in shaping policy measures when implementing EU legislation. Due to Simon Hix (2005) in 1987 July a Council’s decision established the “comitology system” {(it was reformed on June 1999)-(1987/373/EEC), (1999/468/EC)}. Comitology means “the Council designed an elaborated system of committees composed of national governments officials who scrutinize the Commission’s implementing measures (p.52). Due to these proceedings the legislators can examine the Commission. This procedure created a new amalgamation where the governments exercised both legislative and executive role. The truth is that as the procedures are multiplied the autonomy of the Commission decreases. Since 1999 the Council has the final power to veto; this is a really powerful measure that in no way should be used in vain.
Due to the new circumstances, one would expect the Commission and the Council to be in constant conflict. Although, Dogan (1997, 2000) cited by Hix (2005) found that this was not always the case. As he presents, the 29 percent of all comitology procedures proposed by the Commission between 1987 and 1995 were under procedures where the Commission was not strong, and opposite to the Commission’s elocution about the Council’s antithesis to the advisory committee procedure, though the Council accepted 40 percent of the Commission’s propositions for use of this procedure.
By the time that the EP gained legislative powers, the Maastricht Treaty gave a new turn to an already intricate issue. Dinan (1999) had mentioned that till the Treaty of the EU, the EP had no reason to be involved in the procedure (p.229). The 1999 Decision was an attempt of the Council to eliminate any concern of the Commission and the EP; Nugent (2003) characteristically wrote that “prior to the 1999 decision there had been frequent disputes between the Council on the one hand and the Commission on the other over the nature and application of the procedures” (p.136).
The issue is that despite of more or less active involvement of the Council and the EP in the comitology procedure, the Commission’s freedom in shaping the policies, independently of what the other institutions intentions are, is diminished.
Legislative procedures
The guidelines of the EU legislative process have changed substantially since the Treaty of 1957(Rome) established that legislation would be adopted through interaction between the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament. Europe is now more democratic than in the past, but still far from being deeply and true democratic. To reach this point one of the major issues was the re-distribution of power between the Institutions. Through the treaties there has been created a legislative procedure where the Institutions interact and generate the European engine with new policies. Each individual article would be treated differently and in a specific procedure.
The legislative procedure contains four main different types of interaction:
Ÿ the consultation
Ÿ the co-operation
Ÿ the co-decision
Ÿ and the assent.
Desmond Dinan (2004) wrote that on the Maastricht treaty, the EP won another dramatic extension of its legislature role, the co-decision procedure (p.29). This is the latest part of legislation with which the EP acquired legislative authority.
Consultation procedure:
In the Consultation procedure the Commission proposals are passed from the EP for an opinion. The EP may suggest alterations, but the true power of this level is the power of delay. Since the 1980 and after the “Isoglucose Case”, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Council would not act legally if adopted a proposal of the Commission without receiving an opinion of the EP. The ECJ gave to the Parliament significant power after this decision; the de facto power of delay. Since then, the threat of the delay would always have a considerable role in the decision making process.
A characteristic weakness though of this procedure was that the EP was not consulted in all areas. The scenery changed after the Single European Act by initiating the co-operation procedure.
Co-operation procedure:
The SEA enriched the legislative process with the co-operation procedure; due this the Council required Parliamentary agreement in a small number of cases. The Council’s ability to decide was lessen in contrary with the EPs ability to advice. The EP would no longer be spectator in the legislature procedure.
The co-operation procedure consists of two readings: the first is open-ended but the second has a three month deadline which can be extended by one month. Jeremy Richardson (1996) notices that the crucial stage of this procedure is undoubtedly the “common position” (p.98). Due this, if the common position between the Council and the Commission differed markedly from the text considered by the Parliament at the first reading, then the EP should be re-consulted. The common position was the main factor of the co-operation procedure, the Article 146(b) of the SEA clearly defines that both the Council and the Commission should justify to the Parliament the common position they came up with. Though the EP at it second reading has the ability to amend the common position or even reject it by an absolute majority voting. If this happens the Council has to negotiate with the EP in a Conciliation procedure. As Desmon Dinan(1999) mentions, originally the new procedure applied to ten EC Treaty articles, most dealing with the Single market, though the Treaty of Amsterdam virtually abolished it in favor of the Co-decision procedure. After all according to the Prag Report the co-operation procedure was a preparatory stage for the co-decision procedure, where the EP would be enriched with equal legislative power with the Council.
Tsembelis and his coauthors cited by Hix(1999, p.104), consequently argue that the Commission and the EP can influence policy outcomes by proposing amendments that are easier for the Council to accept than to reject.
The co-operation procedure nowadays applies in the field of monetary union because all the other issues are dealt with the co-decision procedure. The legislature process as it can be seen was evolving since 1987 and the classic description of distribution of power between the EU Institutions do not longer apply. Though nowadays, since the Amsterdam Treaty decision-making process has turned in a more teamwork process.
Co-decision procedure:
As defined in Article 251 of the EC Treaty, the co-decision procedure is the legislative procedure which is central to the Community's decision-making system (www.europa.int). The co-decision procedure has undoubtedly changed the set on EU policy making. The role of the European Parliament has significally changed. The present role of the Parliament does not resemble any of the past days; the EP finally obtained much of the power it always seek after.
Under this procedure the policy-making in the EU became much more complicated but interesting though. Through the process the Council and the EP may agree in the first reading and the new legislation is adopted. In case they do not agree in the second reading, then the EP has the opportunity by absolute majority to reject the proposal, which then falls. On the other hand in this stage the EP “may amend the Council’s common position by an absolute majority, in which case conciliation takes place between the Council and the EP” (Helen Wallace & William Wallace,2000,p.22).The conciliation committee is consisting of 25 members from the EP and 25 members of the Council, plus one non-voting representative of the Commission. Although, even the conciliation committee end up in a decision, the results must be approved in a third reading by both the EP and the Council; the EP must approve the third reading by an absolute majority of votes but the Council by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) in a six weeks time. (This stage of the process is modified from first being established in the Maastricht treaty; under the first co-decision procedure, if the conciliation committee fails to reach an agreement then the Council could decide by QMV to adopt its common position, unless the EP voted by absolute majority to reject it). Finally if the conciliation committee has not reached an agreement, the proposal falls.
The co-operation between the two Institutions is really essential after the introduction of the co-decision procedure. Though it is not absolutely clear if the Council has more power from the EP or the opposite, especially after the reform of the co-decision procedure. Whereas it is a fact that by removing the power of the Council to act individually after the failure of the conciliation committee to reach an agreement, precluded the Council to manipulate the Parliament.
The significance of the European Parliament have changed since the Treaty of Amsterdam; the turnabout became obvious through the first fall of an EU legislation; the conciliation committee did not succeed in reaching agreement for the voice telephony because of the Council’s intransigence to make concession.
Assent:
A significant procedure in the field of distribution of power in the policy-making process of the EU is the assent procedure. Through this procedure the EP (only) has the power with a single vote to give its approval with absolute majority. The SEA initiated this procedure which applies only in specific issues such as international agreements, enlargement treaties and framework agreements on the structural funds. Stephen George and Ian Bache (2001) wrote that this was simply an extension of the consultation procedure in which the assent of the EP is required for a measure to be adopted (p.226).
With the assent procedure the circle of the Legislative procedure of the EU was concluded. The redistribution of powers between the Institutions came finally in a complete form; with the Nice Treaty last, the Union came through various changes that secures that the Legislative procedure is an operation of all three Institutions.
Institutions in interaction
Martin Westlake and David Galloway (2004) recently wrote that “the union’s Institutions are based on a separation of interests rather than a separation of powers. The European Parliament represents the popular interest, the Commission the general interest and the Council is the forum where the interests of the Member States can be advanced and defended”(p.9).
The distribution of power is now a really complicated issue which shares between the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament:
The Commission
The European Commission composed of 25 commissioners and 36 directorates-general is the main executive arm of EU and stand in the heart of the system. It is responsible for:
Ÿ initiating policy proposals,
Ÿ monitoring the implementation of proposals as soon as they have been adopted.
Among other issues, the Amsterdam Treaty revised the directive for the Committees. Some of the changes that have been occurred, were the above:
Ÿ Specific criteria to determine the choice of the committees were specified
Ÿ the procedure became more transparent and,
Ÿ The process was simplified.
Furthermore, the commission “regardless of the legal and political limits that subsidiary imposes, jealously guards its right to propose legislation” (Desmond Dinan,1999,p.224). Main argument in supporting this principle is that the Commission and only can shield EU’s collective interest and prosperity.
Through the legislation procedure the Commission is in conflict with the Council, and often tries to “alter Council’s acts with its implementing legislation” (Desmond Dinan,1999,p.228).Though, even if the Commission is the mainly responsible in proposing legislation, the Council and the Parliament have the right to notify the Commission to look through an issue and create proposals for new laws and policies (the Council under Article 208 of the TEC and the EP under Article 192);. The Council after all, “does not have a totally free hand in what it does”(Neil Nugent,2003,p.126) but neither the Council nor the EP can in initiate a draft proposal themselves.
Under these new circumstances the Commission changed method in approaching the Parliament. A number of practical measures were decided, the most notable (Richard Corbett,2001, p.83) being an administrative reorganization whereby each member of the Commission would appoint a parliamentary “attaché” among the members of his/her cabinet.
The Council finally, apart from the sharing of some of his power with the other Institutions has to take under deep consideration other factors such as the Member States, regional and local authorities, sectional groups, private firms and interests.
The Council
The Councils undertakes both executive and legislative functions; it sets the medium and the long term agenda, and is the dominant chamber in the EU legislative process due to Simon Hix (1999,p.7). The Members States in various cases are trying to impugn the legal base of the Commission either for difference of thesis or for political reasons; there exactly lies the use of the Council.
The cooperation of the Council with the other two Institutions is at some times a one way road; this depends on the policy areas and the type of decisions is needed to be made. The Article 208 of the EU Treaty enriched the Council’s policy initiating role with four factors (Neil Nugent,2003,p.152):
1) The adoption by the Council of an increasingly number of opinion, agreements, resolutions and recommendations. Even though these are not legal texts, they have political weight and are designed to put pressure to the Commission to come up with legislative proposals.
2) The Union’s entry into new political areas where the Treaties cannot act upon. There, only the Council can act.
3) The Councils has been transformed in a well organized mechanism with a strong network, where new policies can be initiated.
4) The Member States are willing to cooperate in spheres where the EU law cannot act with legal agreements. Those agreements are not necessary to be generated by the Commission.
It is also a fact that the pillar one is the chamber were the Council can act less independently in legislation issues. There are two significant reasons for this:
i. In the legislation procedure, it is the Commission that makes the proposals with which the Council can work with, and,
ii. the TEU upgraded the EP in co-legislator with the Council, in the areas it is applied.
The new procedure of the TEU has applied in “half of all directives -the most important legislative measures- since the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty”(Neil Nugent,2003,p.152).
In 2001 the Council adopted 137 regulations, 27 decisions and 22 directives on its own, and 23 directives, 13 regulations and 3 decisions through the co-decision procedure together with the EP.
The European Parliament
The EP has numerous powers lying on the legislative procedure. It is the Institution that gained the most new abilities through the reform of the treaties. Some of its powers are to consult, amend, delay, veto and co-decide. The EP also has the right to examine the exercise of executive powers of the Commission and the Council. After all, with all these new elements the modern EP does not really remind the Parliamentary Assembly of the past.
The TEU formally gave to the EP equal to the Council’s authority to submit legislative proposals to the Commission (article 192, former Article 138b, TEC). Nevertheless, even though the Commission is not obliged to put forward a proposal of the EP, after 1995 it agreed to take great account of them.
Following the Treaties the EP has several new opportunities to influence EU legislation:
Ÿ It can influence the Commission in policy-making discussions and propose policy initiatives during the discussions procedure.
Ÿ The other way to initiate legislation ideas is under Article 192 TEC which defines that “The European Parliament may, acting by majority of its members, request the Commission to submit any appropriate proposal on matters on which it considers that a Community act is required for the purpose of implementing this Treaty”(TEC).
Ÿ Third, the annual budgetary cycle provides opportunities to exercise legislative influence (Neil Nugent,12003,p.197)
Ÿ And finally, most important, the EP’s legislative power to contribute in the legislative process through: Consultation - Co operation - Co decision and Assent procedures.
The European Parliament under the new legislative power it gained, definitely left back its sole advisor role. The majority of the MEPs though argue that their power should be equal to the National Parliaments, and so they are fighting for even more. Main argument is that a strong EP will give more credentials for EU in the peoples minds.
Conclusion
It is obvious from the above that the EU after the Amsterdam Treaty
does not have a unique
legislature vehicle.
The Treaties have created a process where all three Institutions interact. In certain areas “the Council wields ultimate legislature power, with the Parliament acting in advisory role” (Martin Westlake and David Galloway,2004,p12).
During the last twenty years endless official and unofficial Meetings were debating whether the legislative procedure should change. The today’s form vindicated all those who believed in a better sharing of the powers. The Commission is not the only Institution that can propose as the Council is not the only that decides. Europe is ready to accept this changing and Europeans are ready for even bigger changes; those changes that will bring Europe closer to people.
The European Union needs all these changes that will create a more powerful image. Then it might gain peoples minds and who knows even peoples hearts.
Bibliography:
Books:
Cowles M.G. & Dinan D. (2004). Developments in the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan: Hampshire.
Corbett R. (1998). The European Parliaments role in closer EU Integration. Palgrave Macmillan: Hampshire.
Dimitrakopoulos D. G. (2004). The changing European Commission. Manchester University Press: Manchester.
Dinan D. (1999). Ever Closer Union: An Introduction to European Integration. The Macmillan Press Ltd: London.
Dinan D. (2004). Europe Recast. Palgrave Macmillan: Hampshire.
Ekengren M. (2002). The time of European Governance. Manchester University press: Manchester and New York.
George S. & Bache I. (2001). Politics in the European Union. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Habermas, J. (1987). Modernity versus postmodernity. New German Critique. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge
Hix S. (2005). The Political System of the European Union(2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan: Hampshire.
Hooghe L. (2001). The European Commission and the Integration of Europe. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Kreppel A. (2002). The European Parliament and Supranational Party System. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Leonard, D. (2005). Guide to the European Union(9th ed.). The Economist: London.
McCormick J. (2005). Understanding the European Union: A Concise Introduction (3rd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan: Hampshire.
Marks, F., Scharpf F.W., Schmitter P.C. & Streeck, W. (1998).Governance in the European Union (2nd ed.). Sage Publications: London.
McCormick J. (1996). The New Europe: Interdisciplinary perspectives. Westview Press: Oxford.
Nugent N. (2003). The Government and Politics of the European Union (5th ed.). Palgrave Macmillan: Hampshire.
Richardson J. J. (1996). European Union: Power and policy-making. Routledge: London and New York.
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Tipton, F. B. & Aldrich, R.(1987). An Economic and Social History of Europe from 1939 to the present. The Macmillan Press Ltd: London.
Wallace, H. & Wallace W. (2000). Policy Making in the European Union. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
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Government Publication:
European Union - Commission of the EU (2005). Co-Decision Guide. Brussels: Communication from the Commission
European Union - Commission of the EU (2005). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social committee and the committee of the Regions. Brussels: Communication from the Commission.
European Union - Commission of the EU (2002). European Governance: better law-making. Brussels: Communication from the Commission.
Electronic Sources:
Electronic Journal articles:
Anonymous (1999, March 16). Europe's power struggle: Commission vs parliament. BBC Online Network.
Anonymous (2005). EU institutions. BBC Online Network.
Anonymous (2005). www.europe.int
Articles retrieved from database:
EU (2006). Constitution. Retrieved January 19, 2006, from the Europarl database.
Yataganas X. A. (2001). The Treaty of Nice: The Sharing of Power and the Institutional Balance in the European Union-A Continental Perspective. Retrieved December 20, 2005, from the Jean Monnet Center database.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
Globalization and European Integration.
Under conditions of security, I will acquire a more complex identity than the idea of tribalism suggests.I will identify myself with more than one tribe;I will be an American, a Jew, an easterner, an intellectual, a professor. Imagine a similar multiplication of identities around the world, and the world begins to look like a less dangerous place.When identities are multiplied, passions are divided.(Walzer 1994:199-200)
From the early Middle Ages Europe existed as a family of cultures, knit by Latin Christianity built on the heritage of the Roman Empire, dynastic intermarriage, the rise of a system of diplomacy and later international treaties (Spohn Willfried&Triantafyllidou Anna, p. 42). Furthermore globalisation, was the main target since the years of colonization; people always wanted to establish relation with the unknown, the “new” always seemed seductive. In the past, this procedure was not “threatening” the National Identities of the Superpowers, because the lines between the civilizations were well drawn.Globalization nowadays, is a contested process where nations, societes and cultures are in deep interrelation; as Wolf characteristically wrote, this continious procedure leads to the formation of a “a model of the world as a global pool hall in which the entities spin off each other like so many hard and rounded billiard balls”. Even we wish to simplify the global structure, whether in the form of nations or societies, identity plays a vital but complex role. The construction, ascription, internationalization, refusal or reclaiming of identities continually works behind, below and on the stage of worls politics (Lisbeth Aggestam & Adrian Hyde-Price, p. 29). An important aspect which is obvious focused in the behaviour of EU member-states is that most of them face European integration and globalisation with a different way; those who consider globalization as a threat, doesn’t mean that they feel the same for European integration.
Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou once said that “the idea at the heart of the European social model is the commitment to combine competitiveness and cohesion”; european integration underpins multiculturalism. Even the European model of integration is the most developed in the world, it might content serious implications.
From the early Middle Ages Europe existed as a family of cultures, knit by Latin Christianity built on the heritage of the Roman Empire, dynastic intermarriage, the rise of a system of diplomacy and later international treaties (Spohn Willfried&Triantafyllidou Anna, p. 42). Furthermore globalisation, was the main target since the years of colonization; people always wanted to establish relation with the unknown, the “new” always seemed seductive. In the past, this procedure was not “threatening” the National Identities of the Superpowers, because the lines between the civilizations were well drawn.Globalization nowadays, is a contested process where nations, societes and cultures are in deep interrelation; as Wolf characteristically wrote, this continious procedure leads to the formation of a “a model of the world as a global pool hall in which the entities spin off each other like so many hard and rounded billiard balls”. Even we wish to simplify the global structure, whether in the form of nations or societies, identity plays a vital but complex role. The construction, ascription, internationalization, refusal or reclaiming of identities continually works behind, below and on the stage of worls politics (Lisbeth Aggestam & Adrian Hyde-Price, p. 29). An important aspect which is obvious focused in the behaviour of EU member-states is that most of them face European integration and globalisation with a different way; those who consider globalization as a threat, doesn’t mean that they feel the same for European integration.
Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou once said that “the idea at the heart of the European social model is the commitment to combine competitiveness and cohesion”; european integration underpins multiculturalism. Even the European model of integration is the most developed in the world, it might content serious implications.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
To what extent has the increased influence on policy-making of transnationally constituted actors actually enhanced the quality of democracy in the EU
Looking at Europe today you can see “a cultural complex entity” (Heard-Laureote, 2005, p.50). The European Union “starches from the Atlantic to the Baltic and from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean and is characterized by linguistic and religious density with twenty official languages and five significant religious currents” (Heard-Laureote, 2005, p.51). Moreover, non-governmental organisations, business associations, political parties, multinational companies, media, private interests, informal groups of people, compete to influence policy-making in the European Union (Kaiser & Starie, 2005, p.1). Some of them claim to be more representative, while other claim to be more expert in certain issues. In addition, you can see “hundreds, perhaps even thousands of scholars, commentators, lawyers and politicians who have analyzed European Unions problem” of democratic deficit (Moravscik, 2002, p.604). Though, according to Warleigh “a regime can be defined as democratic if the people, as a collectivity, have the formal power and a number of sufficiently means, through which to authorize the basic process of legislation” (2003, p.81). Or, as Chrysochoou (2001), cited by Warleigh, wrote, a major problem that EU has to face, is how to encourage its citizens to participate actively in the integration process and in the construction of a political defined demos based on civic society (2003, p.16).
An effort to approach and analyze the issues mentioned above would inevitably bring up the issues of transnationalism and transnational actors. Kaiser and Starie (2005, p.1) characteristically wrote that “transnational actors can play a leading role in agenda setting at all levels of domestic, transgovernmental and European politics and policy-making”. Even state actors “rely on them for the - vision thing - because transnational non-state actors” are “detached from the demands of day-today politics, do not depend on electoral support, are not under constant media scrutiny and can often invest more resources into thinking about future” (Heard-Laureote, 2005, p.11). Moreover the European Commission according to Greenwood benefited from the participation of transnational actors in various aspects, such as: “they are a source of support of its role in drafting legislation; they are a means of ‘testing out’ proposals among stakeholders, and the ways these are likely to be received in different national settings ahead of the Council of Ministers; they seek out points of view about them; and for the Commission’s role as guardian of the Treaties, they collate information about the implementation of measures and their impact” (2003, p.5).
‘Transnationalism’, indicates the numerous connections and cooperation between people or institutions across the borders of nations (Vertovec, 2005, p.iii). Transnational actors are developing since the European Coal and Steel Community was established and they are constituted by Business Associations, Professional Interests Associations, Labour Associations, Public Interests Associations and Territorial Interest Associations (Greenwood, 2003, p.v-vi). According to the Secretariat-General of the European Commission (March 2000) there are 900 EU-level Interests groups (Eising, 2003, p.198), while Greenwood cites a number of 1450 formal Interest groups addressed to EU (Greenwood, 2003, p.9).
There are around 950 Business actors in the European Union and constitute the two-thirds of all EU groups (Greenwood, 2003, p.75); five significant Business associations are: the Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE), the EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM-EU), the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT), the EUROCHAMBERS and the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) (Greenwood, 2003, pp.74-122). Furthermore, there are 132 Professional Interest associations (Greenwood, p.124). According to Greenwood, “the professions are the most weakly organised actors at the EU level” (2003, p.124). Moreover, the Trade Union associations represent the three per cent of the formal EU interests groups while the public sector constitute only one per cent of it (Greenwood, 2003, p.19). At last, the Territorial Interests associations represent “both sub-national, regional and local interest representation at the European level” (Greenwood, 2003, p.230).
“The provision of the Single European Act and the Treaty on European Union” played principal role in the participation of various groups in the EU arena, “especially those active in Single Market or Environmental policy” (Wessels, 1997, p.20). Lowi’s (1964) axiom “policy makes politics” perfectly describes NGOs evolvement in the European Union (cited by Wallace and Young, 1997, p.238); Wallace and Young wrote that “different actors mobilize in different ways in response to different policy initiatives or predicaments” and this contributes in making clear the existing differences between people’s participation (1997, p.238).
This essay will argue that the quality of democracy within the European Union is enhanced by transnational actors such as Public Interests associations, or Non-governmental organisations as they are broadly described. Though, this essay argues that further improvement of their internal structure and governance would contribute in the greater enhancement of EU’s democracy. Greenwood, Warleigh, Wallace, Youth and Cini among others have extensively analyzed this issue and spread light in a very important subject. Warleigh wrote (2001, p.6190 that “as a strategy for tackling the ’democratic deficit’, attention is increasingly shifting towards the ’Europeanization’ of civil society”. De Tocqueville (1981[1845]), cited by Warleigh (2001, p.620), wrote that “civil society’s return to the center of political discourse has been viewed by liberal political theorist as the means to elaborate a legitimate state structure by limiting its scope and by encouraging or facilitating political engagement by, and mutual solidarity between, otherwise alienated individuals”. Moreover, there are “traditional neo-functionalist explanations, which place the relationship between supranational institutions and organized interests at the center of the European Union” (Greenwood, 2003, p.254). It is the neofunctionalists that have strongly supported that the “involvement of such actors would be a key catalyst in deepening and expanding the Union’s powers”; moreover, they argued that interest groups “could affect public policy and thereby gain a stake in the preservation of both the outputs and system of the Union” (Warleigh, 2006, p.122)
At the first part of this essay an effort will be made to define Public Interests associations and their contribution to the enhancement of the quality of democracy within the EU, as soon as key problems and weaknesses of this process. At the end of the first part the essay will signify some of the factors that could push this process forward and improve EU’s democracy. Furthermore, in the second part of this essay the analysis will focus on the Environmental actors and their role in this process. At last, the conclusion of this essay will summarize the aforementioned issues and point out key subjects that could play an important role in a future development.
The Public interest associations represent the twenty per cent of EU’s formal interest groups (Greenwood, 2003, p.19), while “no systematic consultation” between them and the EU took place until the 1980’s (Cullen cited by Greenwood, 2003, p.180). Public interest associations are “the second largest category of EU interest actors”, at the same time as the European Commission spends one billion euros to support their actions and projects (Greenwood, 2003, p.179); the forty per cent of their activities involve humanitarian aid, human rights, democratisation, external relations etc. (Greenwood, 2003, p.179). “Civil society acts as a mediator between the citizen and the state” (Warleigh, 2001, p.620) and along with what Greenwood has written, the European Union even before the problem of democratic deficit came over, favored to “address this issue” through: encouraging citizen participation, ensuring equality of access and accountability, together with transparency and standards of policy-making (2003, p.6).An excellent example is the “Citizens First!” campaign in 1993, which renamed as “Dialogue with citizens” in 1998, where the Commission’s primary target was to approach EU citizens and public actors with a different perspective and give them the opportunity to feel closer to Europe (Greenwood, 2003, p.176).
Public interest associations are not all concerned with the same issues and problems. There are Environmental groups concerned with environmental issues; Consumer interest actors related with Consumer Policies and Social interest associations, that according to Greenwood, share a closer relation with the European Commission (2003, p.209). An important question that requires an answer early in the analysis of this essay, is why the European Union needs these associations and how these could foster EU democracy? According to Greenwood (2003, p.177), the Public interest actors “foster participatory democracy, and contribute to policy-making” while they “provide valuable information, in both preparing and implementing policy” (Kirchner & Schwaiger, 1981, p.10); they help EU to communicate with its grassroots and they “act as a filter for various national interests in certain sectors” (Kirchner & Schwaiger, 1981, p.10). Even more, along with the European Commission (2000a), Public interest associations contribute to project management, policy programme implementation and even in European integration (Greenwood, 2003, p.177). Non-governmental organisations operate as “guardians of public interests”; they “monitor and assess the performance of political and economic players and respond to their action or inaction” (Global Policy Forum, 2001).
The legitimacy and political accountability of the European Union cannot solely be “limited in increasing the power of the European Parliament” (Kohler-Koch, p.54). Other actors such as regional and environmental, in cooperation with the European Union, enhance the effectiveness and legitimacy of EU’s Policies and Programs (Kohler-Koch, p.54). Moreover, as Warleigh wrote (2001, p.622), NGO’s “contribution to the legitimacy of the Union has thus largely been through helping to produce more broadly acceptable policy outcomes”. The broad support that Public interests groups have gained from the people, can become the necessary vehicle for improving EU’s democratic quality. As Eising (2003, p.193) wrote, these interests groups can be seen as “schools for democracy, that socialize citizens as political beings, and contribute to the formation of a general will, out of the specific concerns of groups”. As Covey (1996) wrote “NGOs often claim to work in alternative ways which socialize and empowers those they serve” (cited by Warleigh, 2006, p.123). Social actors offer the necessary prerequisites for lessening the “gap between the governing and the governed” by increasing people’s knowledge regarding the “purpose, policies and actions of the European Union (Global Policy Forum, 2001). It is because of NGO’s presence in EU policy-making “that a wider range of political activists is aware of EU issues and is attempting to raise broader societal concerns at the EU level than in the past” (Warleigh, 2006, p.122). The latter together with NGO’s “extensive membership”, bring Europe closer to its citizens (Warleigh, 2006, p.122).
The “Brussels Archipelago”, as Wessels (1997, p.19) characterize the “horizontal and vertical channels of actors interaction”, improve the transparency and legitimacy of the European Union’s political system. He wrote (1997, p.20) that:
These actors both promote the integration process and are pulled by an in-built dynamic, based on competition for access and influence in the making of public policies. Thus, endogenous and exogenous dynamics lead to a new kind of European political system: this is characterized by the fusion between instruments, procedures, and networks from several levels of public policies.
An important step towards greater inclusiveness was made in the 1996/7 IGC process; there the Committee of Experts “promoted the idea of a ’civil dialogue’, in parallel with the ‘social dialogue’ which was at that time beginning to produce its first tangible results” (Greenwood, 2003, p.185).
Additionally, an important role that public interest actors play in their effort to enhance the quality of democracy within the EU is the “Europeanization of civil society” (Warleigh, 2001, pp. 635-636); Europeanization is necessary as “a part of the solution to the notorious democratic deficit” (Warleigh, 2001, p.620). This will give EU citizens the necessary social and cognitive background to support the democratisation and generally the integration process of the European Union. The common market, the common money, the development of the periphery and the cohesion funds are important elements of European Union, though the Europeanization of people and the creation of a European awareness is necessary for them to work (Theologou, p.2005, p.7). The process for deeper Europeanization is a process of deep evolution and innovations; NGO’s play an active role in this process. EU membership and participation demands the evolution of basic values of the Societies (Featherstone & Radaelli, 2003, p.7). These values can be inspired and inculcated by active and efficient public organisations. Moreover, Keone (1988) cited by Warleigh (2001, p.620) “has seen the civil society as both the defeat of big government and a means of bringing the citizens back” in the European Union. As long as political parties remain less active in this process, the main responsibility to “bring citizens back” (Keane cited by Warleigh, 2001, p.620) remains to Public interests actors. Aspinwall (1998) cited by Warleigh wrote that “the weakness of political parties at EU level has created an advocacy void that NGOs are well situated to fill (Warleigh, 2006, p.123). Though, Kohler-Kohl (1997, p.54) wrote that “their influence depends on how well they succeed in making a privileged framework for discussion and a center for networking”. Furthermore, Public interest actors take advantage of the “good reputation” they share with the public, and that “makes them credible advocates of engagement with the European Union” (Warleigh, 2006, p.123).
There are a number of European Union’s political actors that encounter Public interest associations as valuable “channels to popular opinion and/or concern which they prioritize more highly than representation from industry” (Warleigh, 2000, p.231). For example, the Parliament and its Members are “the natural ally of social actors, not necessarily because they favour their demands, but because their interests match” (Kohler-Koch, 1997, p.55). MEP’s want to gain as much public interest they can, because in this way they will improve their political influence. As Kohler-Koch wrote “MEP’s and interest groups share an interest in building up their strength and therefore in giving each other support, as numerous case studies about consumer protection, environmental policies and animal protection illustrate” (Kohler-Kocj.1997,p.55). MEP’s interest for Public interests groups gives the latter the opportunity to influence policies and enhance democracy by being in constant contact with the European Parliament.
Though, despite of the important contribution that Public interests groups offer to the enhancement of EU’s democracy, there are various scholars such as Warleigh (2000, 2001, 2006) and Greenwood (2003) who notice some weaknesses in this process. There are internal problems in the administration and governance of those actors that prevent them of being in constant interaction with the Europeans and promote their Europeanization. Public interest associations must overcome their internal democratic weaknesses if they aim in promoting people’s further Europeanization; NGO’s must be keen and competent to “act as agents of political socialisation, with particular reference to EU decision making and policy” (Warleigh, 2001, p.635). At the present time, there is high distance between the people that lead the Public interests associations and their supporters; this does not give them the opportunity to participate in neither policy and action planning nor agenda setting. Moreover, NGOs “must be substantively rather than formally democratic: that is, they must not only have structures which allow supporters to participate in their decision making but their supporters should actively play such a role” (Warleigh, 2006, p.126).
Even more, Eising (2003, p.203) mentioned that “some members of social policy interest groups fear that the support given by EU Institutions is little more than a convenient way for EU to give a human face to the Single Market”.
Cullen (1999), cited by Greenwood (2003, p.178), identified three models of groups-civil society analysis; the first, “sees an emerging civil society from the development of the EU public interest agenda”; the second, exams EU Public interest actors as “an elite, isolated segment whose self-contained dialogue with the Commission does little to enable it to reach out civil society, while the last “identifies element of both contestation and incorporation in the relationship between the Commission and NGO’s”. The role of Social actors might not be the ideal one, though an important work has been done and the process of improvement emerge. In this effort, Social actors need to overcome Europe’s diversity and ‘make’ Europeans believe in Europe and work united with the same hopes and aims. It is of significant importance, the Public interest associations to establish mechanisms that will give an opportunity to “their supporters to play a role in the formation of NGO policy on issues to be tackled in the EU level” (Warleigh, 2001, p.623); Furthermore, an emerging problem that many scholars intend to mention, is the increasing economic dependence of NGO’s from the European Commission and/or others. As Warleigh wrote, “NGOs must be able to call their own tune rather than answer to the priorities of their funders” (2006, p.126) because this might affect their independence and the agenda setting of their actions.
NGO’s have the opportunity to emerge in key factors in the progress of European Unions democratisation. This will happen as soon as NGO’s take over their important role to “educate their supporters about EU policy and structures” (Warleigh, 2001, p.623). Additionally, NGO’s must provide their supporters with the necessary prerequisites for active participation in EU’s policy formation. This will only occur if Social actors open their decision-making process to their supporters and let them participate actively in it; otherwise, “the socialization will be stillborn, with insufficient outlets for the newly raised levels of awareness” (Warleigh, 2001, p.623).
Warleigh (2001, p.635-636) identified a “twin strategy in which NGOs can reform and play a part”: first, the opportunity structures available to NGOs at EU level must be improved and at the same time, the role of civil society in all stages of the legislative chain must be enhanced”. It is significant that “the partnership principle must be exported in all areas of EU activity” (Schott cited by Warleigh, 2001, pp.635-636). Moreover, crucial element towards EU democratisation is “the broad attempt to engage the public and initiate further institutional reform based on sustained public dialogue” (Warleigh, 2001, pp.635-636). NGOs must enhance their “politicization” and their ability to draw on existing political socialization while overcoming their “service delivery” role (Warleigh, 2001, p.634); then they will be able to inspire their participants with the higher cause for which they are established.
In the first part of this essay, an effort has been made to analyze the increased influence on policy-making, of transnational constituted actors, to enhance the quality of democracy within the European Union. This occurs in various ways, such as: broad participation of NGOs in planning and implementation of EU policies, the open dialogue of NGOs with Institutions, etc. Though, the present structure of Social interests groups, face significant weaknesses that need to be revisoled, in an effort to make this process more effective and transparent. Furthermore, the second part of this essay will focus on the Environmental actors and their role in enhancing EU’s democracy.
The European Union is a “world leader in environmental affairs” (Greenwood, 2003, p.189) while “views itself as the logical vehicle for bringing environmentally-proactive new ideas to the negotiations backed with considerable political clout” (Pedler, 2002, p.99). The European Environmental non-governmental organizations have succeeded in overcoming many of the NGO’s problems that this essay presented in the first part; this transformed them in a useful and active ally in EU’s effort for democratisation. Environmental actors succeeded in bringing environmental issues in the center of citizen’s interests; these issues are ‘highly politicized’ and the ‘Eurobarometer’ surveys have repeatedly shown the popularity of the European level to tackle environmental problems” (Greenwood, 2003, p.186). European Environmental NGO’s cooperate in their effort to integrate environment into as many EU Policy areas as possible. Moreover they combine their forces in “adding value to natural resources management, promoting partnership with Civil Society and evaluating progress towards the achievement of sustainable development objectives” (Environmental NGO’s common position, 2004).
EU’s active environmental engagement started in 1972 after a “landmark summit held in Stockholm” (Greenwood, 2003, p.186). Since then, five environmental action programs were implemented, while the sixth ends in 2010 (Greenwood, 2003, p.186). The Environmental NGOs have succeeded in pursuing politicians and citizens that the environmental issues have “no respect of boundaries” and countries (Greenwood, 2003, p.186). Common actions were necessary to face the various problems that EU countries started facing while industrialization was in progress. Moreover, the first important step was taken with the Single European Market that identified the importance of the environmental issues and was “extended by the TEU with the use of QMV and the addition of the precautionary principle” (Greenwood, 2003, p.186).
The European Environmental Bureau was the first active organisation and it “was founded in 1974 to promote the protection of the environment” (Eising, 2003, p.202). In thirty years, it succeeded in including 134 organisations from 25 countries (Greenwood, 2003, p.190). Furthermore, the last 20 years “some 13 environmental organisations and networks” are active at the European Union” (Hey & Brendle, 1994, cited by Eising, 2003, p.202).The eight largest environmental NGO’s are: the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE), Greenpeace, the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E), Birdlife International, Climate Network Europe (CNE) and Friends of Nature International (INF). The Group of Eight (G8,) according to their data, have 20 million members which represent “at least 5 per cent of the European population” (Greenwood, 2003, p.189); their broad membership helps them to transform as significant and reliable factors for tackling EU’s democratic deficit.
The active participation and the increasing importance of environmental issues led EU to sign the Aarthus Convention “on citizens rights in environmental matters, guaranteeing rights of access to information, public participation in decision making and to justice in environmental matters” (G8 cited by Greenwood, 2003, p.187). The EU’s environmental laws rang between over 200 (WWF, 2002, cited Greenwood, 2003, p.187) to over 700 (Jones, 2002, cited by Greenwood, 2003, p.187).WWF for example, has given great priority in influencing EU environmental policy and legislation and have created a “European Policy Office” with 20 people staff, that aims to relate with the Directorate General for the Environment or the Parliaments Environment, Public Health and Consumer Affairs Committee, among others (Long, Salter & Singer , 2002, p.87). As Greenwood (2003, p.187) characteristically wrote, the environmental Public Interests actors are:
Ηighly capable of engaging policy-making at a scientific level, and their dedication to the cause can give them an advantage over Business associations struggling with a variety of issues in EU policy-making coming at them.
Long, Salter and Singer (2002, pp.89-95), for example, mentioned that in a case of energy source companies, the result was that Business associations like ERT and UNICE were disregarded, despite of the fact that the result had great impact on their interests. Additionally, in other cases, transnational Business actors “collaborate with ‘light green’ interests groups, if there is an agreement of interests” (Greenwood, p.188).
Furthermore, most of the G8 NGOs have succeeded in creating close relations with DG Environment and this gave them the opportunity to "sit on the General Advisory Forum on the Environment and Sustainable Development" (Greenwood, 2003, p. 192). Moreover, they come together with the Cabinet of DG Environment every “six to eight weeks” and “once a year” with the President of the Commission (Greenwood, 2003, p. 192). These gave them, apart from credibility towards their members, the opportunity to influence policy-making and bring EU closer to its grassroots. The “establishment of a structured dialogue between organised civil society and the different levels of government” is the necessary precondition for enhancement EU’s democracy. (“Democracy, Governance”, April 20th, 2006). For example, Greenpeace in a campaign over the drinking water directive “achieved an EP amendment about pesticide limits which the Commission accepted despite the opinions of its own scientific adviser (Warleigh, 2002, cited by Greenwood, 2003, p.194). Or, on the other hand, WWF took the initiative to actively influence issues such as “the clean development mechanism”, “reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels” etc. (Long, Salter, singer, pp.88-103).
Furthermore, the Environmental NGOs despite of some weaknesses such as intense EU funding - Greenpeace is the sole Environmental NGO that do not receive any funding from the European Commission - have succeeded in “engaging policy-making through formulation, implementation and monitoring” (Greenwood, 2003, p.196). They have also succeeded in motivating million of peoples to “care” about EU environment and “helped to shape not only the thinking of policy actors such as the Commission and producer groups, but also Member States preferences towards Environmental protection policies” (Greenwood, 2003, p.196). Environmental NGOs have succeeded a fundamental precondition for tackling EU’s democratic deficit: they transformed all environmental issues as subjects for common discussion between EU citizens while they gave them the opportunity to act.
The aim of this essay was to examine the extend that the increased influence on policy-making of transnationally constituted actors enhance the quality of democracy within the EU. It was argued, in the first part, that transnational constituted actors such as Public interest associations enhance the quality of democracy within the EU. Though, as it was argued, greater enhancement and effectiveness could be succeeded if NGOs improve their internal structure by succeeding: greater independence, improvement of the internal democratic structure, improvement of their perceptive influence on members and supporters, and as Warleigh wrote (2001, p.632) greater concentration on the Politicization of their supporters rather than Service Delivery. Moreover, the second part of this essay focused its analysis on Environmental transnational actors that is claimed by numerous scholars, such as Greenwood, to be the most active among Public interests associations. Environmental actors, their action in policy-making, legislation and effective representation were some of the issues that were analyzed in this part.
As Vivien Schmidt (2004, p.977) wrote, “democracy in the European Union should not only concern government by the people but also government of the people or government with the people through contact interaction with organized interests”. The White Paper in the European Governance, originated in 2001, was focused in the way that EU treats the powers that is given by its citizens. As the White Papers declares: “reform must be started now, so that people see changes before further modification of the EU Treaties” (p.3). The White Paper aims in promoting good governance by five steps: openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence (p.10). The European Union need to give people an opportunity for greater involvement that will end up in greater responsibility and effectiveness of policy implementation. Even more, the White Paper promoted consultation and dialogue between EU and Interest associations; this will give civil society the opportunity to play an important role by “giving voice to the concerns of citizens and delivering services that meet people’s needs” (White Paper, 2001, p.30). Furthermore, it is significantly essential in lessening EU’s problem of democratic deficit, important decision to be taken (Global Policy Forum, 2001): European Union’s reform effort must, on the one hand, include “stronger structured civil dialogue” and on the other hand, should aim in “further improvement of non-governmental organisations” (Global Policy Forum, 2001).
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An effort to approach and analyze the issues mentioned above would inevitably bring up the issues of transnationalism and transnational actors. Kaiser and Starie (2005, p.1) characteristically wrote that “transnational actors can play a leading role in agenda setting at all levels of domestic, transgovernmental and European politics and policy-making”. Even state actors “rely on them for the - vision thing - because transnational non-state actors” are “detached from the demands of day-today politics, do not depend on electoral support, are not under constant media scrutiny and can often invest more resources into thinking about future” (Heard-Laureote, 2005, p.11). Moreover the European Commission according to Greenwood benefited from the participation of transnational actors in various aspects, such as: “they are a source of support of its role in drafting legislation; they are a means of ‘testing out’ proposals among stakeholders, and the ways these are likely to be received in different national settings ahead of the Council of Ministers; they seek out points of view about them; and for the Commission’s role as guardian of the Treaties, they collate information about the implementation of measures and their impact” (2003, p.5).
‘Transnationalism’, indicates the numerous connections and cooperation between people or institutions across the borders of nations (Vertovec, 2005, p.iii). Transnational actors are developing since the European Coal and Steel Community was established and they are constituted by Business Associations, Professional Interests Associations, Labour Associations, Public Interests Associations and Territorial Interest Associations (Greenwood, 2003, p.v-vi). According to the Secretariat-General of the European Commission (March 2000) there are 900 EU-level Interests groups (Eising, 2003, p.198), while Greenwood cites a number of 1450 formal Interest groups addressed to EU (Greenwood, 2003, p.9).
There are around 950 Business actors in the European Union and constitute the two-thirds of all EU groups (Greenwood, 2003, p.75); five significant Business associations are: the Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE), the EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM-EU), the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT), the EUROCHAMBERS and the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) (Greenwood, 2003, pp.74-122). Furthermore, there are 132 Professional Interest associations (Greenwood, p.124). According to Greenwood, “the professions are the most weakly organised actors at the EU level” (2003, p.124). Moreover, the Trade Union associations represent the three per cent of the formal EU interests groups while the public sector constitute only one per cent of it (Greenwood, 2003, p.19). At last, the Territorial Interests associations represent “both sub-national, regional and local interest representation at the European level” (Greenwood, 2003, p.230).
“The provision of the Single European Act and the Treaty on European Union” played principal role in the participation of various groups in the EU arena, “especially those active in Single Market or Environmental policy” (Wessels, 1997, p.20). Lowi’s (1964) axiom “policy makes politics” perfectly describes NGOs evolvement in the European Union (cited by Wallace and Young, 1997, p.238); Wallace and Young wrote that “different actors mobilize in different ways in response to different policy initiatives or predicaments” and this contributes in making clear the existing differences between people’s participation (1997, p.238).
This essay will argue that the quality of democracy within the European Union is enhanced by transnational actors such as Public Interests associations, or Non-governmental organisations as they are broadly described. Though, this essay argues that further improvement of their internal structure and governance would contribute in the greater enhancement of EU’s democracy. Greenwood, Warleigh, Wallace, Youth and Cini among others have extensively analyzed this issue and spread light in a very important subject. Warleigh wrote (2001, p.6190 that “as a strategy for tackling the ’democratic deficit’, attention is increasingly shifting towards the ’Europeanization’ of civil society”. De Tocqueville (1981[1845]), cited by Warleigh (2001, p.620), wrote that “civil society’s return to the center of political discourse has been viewed by liberal political theorist as the means to elaborate a legitimate state structure by limiting its scope and by encouraging or facilitating political engagement by, and mutual solidarity between, otherwise alienated individuals”. Moreover, there are “traditional neo-functionalist explanations, which place the relationship between supranational institutions and organized interests at the center of the European Union” (Greenwood, 2003, p.254). It is the neofunctionalists that have strongly supported that the “involvement of such actors would be a key catalyst in deepening and expanding the Union’s powers”; moreover, they argued that interest groups “could affect public policy and thereby gain a stake in the preservation of both the outputs and system of the Union” (Warleigh, 2006, p.122)
At the first part of this essay an effort will be made to define Public Interests associations and their contribution to the enhancement of the quality of democracy within the EU, as soon as key problems and weaknesses of this process. At the end of the first part the essay will signify some of the factors that could push this process forward and improve EU’s democracy. Furthermore, in the second part of this essay the analysis will focus on the Environmental actors and their role in this process. At last, the conclusion of this essay will summarize the aforementioned issues and point out key subjects that could play an important role in a future development.
The Public interest associations represent the twenty per cent of EU’s formal interest groups (Greenwood, 2003, p.19), while “no systematic consultation” between them and the EU took place until the 1980’s (Cullen cited by Greenwood, 2003, p.180). Public interest associations are “the second largest category of EU interest actors”, at the same time as the European Commission spends one billion euros to support their actions and projects (Greenwood, 2003, p.179); the forty per cent of their activities involve humanitarian aid, human rights, democratisation, external relations etc. (Greenwood, 2003, p.179). “Civil society acts as a mediator between the citizen and the state” (Warleigh, 2001, p.620) and along with what Greenwood has written, the European Union even before the problem of democratic deficit came over, favored to “address this issue” through: encouraging citizen participation, ensuring equality of access and accountability, together with transparency and standards of policy-making (2003, p.6).An excellent example is the “Citizens First!” campaign in 1993, which renamed as “Dialogue with citizens” in 1998, where the Commission’s primary target was to approach EU citizens and public actors with a different perspective and give them the opportunity to feel closer to Europe (Greenwood, 2003, p.176).
Public interest associations are not all concerned with the same issues and problems. There are Environmental groups concerned with environmental issues; Consumer interest actors related with Consumer Policies and Social interest associations, that according to Greenwood, share a closer relation with the European Commission (2003, p.209). An important question that requires an answer early in the analysis of this essay, is why the European Union needs these associations and how these could foster EU democracy? According to Greenwood (2003, p.177), the Public interest actors “foster participatory democracy, and contribute to policy-making” while they “provide valuable information, in both preparing and implementing policy” (Kirchner & Schwaiger, 1981, p.10); they help EU to communicate with its grassroots and they “act as a filter for various national interests in certain sectors” (Kirchner & Schwaiger, 1981, p.10). Even more, along with the European Commission (2000a), Public interest associations contribute to project management, policy programme implementation and even in European integration (Greenwood, 2003, p.177). Non-governmental organisations operate as “guardians of public interests”; they “monitor and assess the performance of political and economic players and respond to their action or inaction” (Global Policy Forum, 2001).
The legitimacy and political accountability of the European Union cannot solely be “limited in increasing the power of the European Parliament” (Kohler-Koch, p.54). Other actors such as regional and environmental, in cooperation with the European Union, enhance the effectiveness and legitimacy of EU’s Policies and Programs (Kohler-Koch, p.54). Moreover, as Warleigh wrote (2001, p.622), NGO’s “contribution to the legitimacy of the Union has thus largely been through helping to produce more broadly acceptable policy outcomes”. The broad support that Public interests groups have gained from the people, can become the necessary vehicle for improving EU’s democratic quality. As Eising (2003, p.193) wrote, these interests groups can be seen as “schools for democracy, that socialize citizens as political beings, and contribute to the formation of a general will, out of the specific concerns of groups”. As Covey (1996) wrote “NGOs often claim to work in alternative ways which socialize and empowers those they serve” (cited by Warleigh, 2006, p.123). Social actors offer the necessary prerequisites for lessening the “gap between the governing and the governed” by increasing people’s knowledge regarding the “purpose, policies and actions of the European Union (Global Policy Forum, 2001). It is because of NGO’s presence in EU policy-making “that a wider range of political activists is aware of EU issues and is attempting to raise broader societal concerns at the EU level than in the past” (Warleigh, 2006, p.122). The latter together with NGO’s “extensive membership”, bring Europe closer to its citizens (Warleigh, 2006, p.122).
The “Brussels Archipelago”, as Wessels (1997, p.19) characterize the “horizontal and vertical channels of actors interaction”, improve the transparency and legitimacy of the European Union’s political system. He wrote (1997, p.20) that:
These actors both promote the integration process and are pulled by an in-built dynamic, based on competition for access and influence in the making of public policies. Thus, endogenous and exogenous dynamics lead to a new kind of European political system: this is characterized by the fusion between instruments, procedures, and networks from several levels of public policies.
An important step towards greater inclusiveness was made in the 1996/7 IGC process; there the Committee of Experts “promoted the idea of a ’civil dialogue’, in parallel with the ‘social dialogue’ which was at that time beginning to produce its first tangible results” (Greenwood, 2003, p.185).
Additionally, an important role that public interest actors play in their effort to enhance the quality of democracy within the EU is the “Europeanization of civil society” (Warleigh, 2001, pp. 635-636); Europeanization is necessary as “a part of the solution to the notorious democratic deficit” (Warleigh, 2001, p.620). This will give EU citizens the necessary social and cognitive background to support the democratisation and generally the integration process of the European Union. The common market, the common money, the development of the periphery and the cohesion funds are important elements of European Union, though the Europeanization of people and the creation of a European awareness is necessary for them to work (Theologou, p.2005, p.7). The process for deeper Europeanization is a process of deep evolution and innovations; NGO’s play an active role in this process. EU membership and participation demands the evolution of basic values of the Societies (Featherstone & Radaelli, 2003, p.7). These values can be inspired and inculcated by active and efficient public organisations. Moreover, Keone (1988) cited by Warleigh (2001, p.620) “has seen the civil society as both the defeat of big government and a means of bringing the citizens back” in the European Union. As long as political parties remain less active in this process, the main responsibility to “bring citizens back” (Keane cited by Warleigh, 2001, p.620) remains to Public interests actors. Aspinwall (1998) cited by Warleigh wrote that “the weakness of political parties at EU level has created an advocacy void that NGOs are well situated to fill (Warleigh, 2006, p.123). Though, Kohler-Kohl (1997, p.54) wrote that “their influence depends on how well they succeed in making a privileged framework for discussion and a center for networking”. Furthermore, Public interest actors take advantage of the “good reputation” they share with the public, and that “makes them credible advocates of engagement with the European Union” (Warleigh, 2006, p.123).
There are a number of European Union’s political actors that encounter Public interest associations as valuable “channels to popular opinion and/or concern which they prioritize more highly than representation from industry” (Warleigh, 2000, p.231). For example, the Parliament and its Members are “the natural ally of social actors, not necessarily because they favour their demands, but because their interests match” (Kohler-Koch, 1997, p.55). MEP’s want to gain as much public interest they can, because in this way they will improve their political influence. As Kohler-Koch wrote “MEP’s and interest groups share an interest in building up their strength and therefore in giving each other support, as numerous case studies about consumer protection, environmental policies and animal protection illustrate” (Kohler-Kocj.1997,p.55). MEP’s interest for Public interests groups gives the latter the opportunity to influence policies and enhance democracy by being in constant contact with the European Parliament.
Though, despite of the important contribution that Public interests groups offer to the enhancement of EU’s democracy, there are various scholars such as Warleigh (2000, 2001, 2006) and Greenwood (2003) who notice some weaknesses in this process. There are internal problems in the administration and governance of those actors that prevent them of being in constant interaction with the Europeans and promote their Europeanization. Public interest associations must overcome their internal democratic weaknesses if they aim in promoting people’s further Europeanization; NGO’s must be keen and competent to “act as agents of political socialisation, with particular reference to EU decision making and policy” (Warleigh, 2001, p.635). At the present time, there is high distance between the people that lead the Public interests associations and their supporters; this does not give them the opportunity to participate in neither policy and action planning nor agenda setting. Moreover, NGOs “must be substantively rather than formally democratic: that is, they must not only have structures which allow supporters to participate in their decision making but their supporters should actively play such a role” (Warleigh, 2006, p.126).
Even more, Eising (2003, p.203) mentioned that “some members of social policy interest groups fear that the support given by EU Institutions is little more than a convenient way for EU to give a human face to the Single Market”.
Cullen (1999), cited by Greenwood (2003, p.178), identified three models of groups-civil society analysis; the first, “sees an emerging civil society from the development of the EU public interest agenda”; the second, exams EU Public interest actors as “an elite, isolated segment whose self-contained dialogue with the Commission does little to enable it to reach out civil society, while the last “identifies element of both contestation and incorporation in the relationship between the Commission and NGO’s”. The role of Social actors might not be the ideal one, though an important work has been done and the process of improvement emerge. In this effort, Social actors need to overcome Europe’s diversity and ‘make’ Europeans believe in Europe and work united with the same hopes and aims. It is of significant importance, the Public interest associations to establish mechanisms that will give an opportunity to “their supporters to play a role in the formation of NGO policy on issues to be tackled in the EU level” (Warleigh, 2001, p.623); Furthermore, an emerging problem that many scholars intend to mention, is the increasing economic dependence of NGO’s from the European Commission and/or others. As Warleigh wrote, “NGOs must be able to call their own tune rather than answer to the priorities of their funders” (2006, p.126) because this might affect their independence and the agenda setting of their actions.
NGO’s have the opportunity to emerge in key factors in the progress of European Unions democratisation. This will happen as soon as NGO’s take over their important role to “educate their supporters about EU policy and structures” (Warleigh, 2001, p.623). Additionally, NGO’s must provide their supporters with the necessary prerequisites for active participation in EU’s policy formation. This will only occur if Social actors open their decision-making process to their supporters and let them participate actively in it; otherwise, “the socialization will be stillborn, with insufficient outlets for the newly raised levels of awareness” (Warleigh, 2001, p.623).
Warleigh (2001, p.635-636) identified a “twin strategy in which NGOs can reform and play a part”: first, the opportunity structures available to NGOs at EU level must be improved and at the same time, the role of civil society in all stages of the legislative chain must be enhanced”. It is significant that “the partnership principle must be exported in all areas of EU activity” (Schott cited by Warleigh, 2001, pp.635-636). Moreover, crucial element towards EU democratisation is “the broad attempt to engage the public and initiate further institutional reform based on sustained public dialogue” (Warleigh, 2001, pp.635-636). NGOs must enhance their “politicization” and their ability to draw on existing political socialization while overcoming their “service delivery” role (Warleigh, 2001, p.634); then they will be able to inspire their participants with the higher cause for which they are established.
In the first part of this essay, an effort has been made to analyze the increased influence on policy-making, of transnational constituted actors, to enhance the quality of democracy within the European Union. This occurs in various ways, such as: broad participation of NGOs in planning and implementation of EU policies, the open dialogue of NGOs with Institutions, etc. Though, the present structure of Social interests groups, face significant weaknesses that need to be revisoled, in an effort to make this process more effective and transparent. Furthermore, the second part of this essay will focus on the Environmental actors and their role in enhancing EU’s democracy.
The European Union is a “world leader in environmental affairs” (Greenwood, 2003, p.189) while “views itself as the logical vehicle for bringing environmentally-proactive new ideas to the negotiations backed with considerable political clout” (Pedler, 2002, p.99). The European Environmental non-governmental organizations have succeeded in overcoming many of the NGO’s problems that this essay presented in the first part; this transformed them in a useful and active ally in EU’s effort for democratisation. Environmental actors succeeded in bringing environmental issues in the center of citizen’s interests; these issues are ‘highly politicized’ and the ‘Eurobarometer’ surveys have repeatedly shown the popularity of the European level to tackle environmental problems” (Greenwood, 2003, p.186). European Environmental NGO’s cooperate in their effort to integrate environment into as many EU Policy areas as possible. Moreover they combine their forces in “adding value to natural resources management, promoting partnership with Civil Society and evaluating progress towards the achievement of sustainable development objectives” (Environmental NGO’s common position, 2004).
EU’s active environmental engagement started in 1972 after a “landmark summit held in Stockholm” (Greenwood, 2003, p.186). Since then, five environmental action programs were implemented, while the sixth ends in 2010 (Greenwood, 2003, p.186). The Environmental NGOs have succeeded in pursuing politicians and citizens that the environmental issues have “no respect of boundaries” and countries (Greenwood, 2003, p.186). Common actions were necessary to face the various problems that EU countries started facing while industrialization was in progress. Moreover, the first important step was taken with the Single European Market that identified the importance of the environmental issues and was “extended by the TEU with the use of QMV and the addition of the precautionary principle” (Greenwood, 2003, p.186).
The European Environmental Bureau was the first active organisation and it “was founded in 1974 to promote the protection of the environment” (Eising, 2003, p.202). In thirty years, it succeeded in including 134 organisations from 25 countries (Greenwood, 2003, p.190). Furthermore, the last 20 years “some 13 environmental organisations and networks” are active at the European Union” (Hey & Brendle, 1994, cited by Eising, 2003, p.202).The eight largest environmental NGO’s are: the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE), Greenpeace, the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E), Birdlife International, Climate Network Europe (CNE) and Friends of Nature International (INF). The Group of Eight (G8,) according to their data, have 20 million members which represent “at least 5 per cent of the European population” (Greenwood, 2003, p.189); their broad membership helps them to transform as significant and reliable factors for tackling EU’s democratic deficit.
The active participation and the increasing importance of environmental issues led EU to sign the Aarthus Convention “on citizens rights in environmental matters, guaranteeing rights of access to information, public participation in decision making and to justice in environmental matters” (G8 cited by Greenwood, 2003, p.187). The EU’s environmental laws rang between over 200 (WWF, 2002, cited Greenwood, 2003, p.187) to over 700 (Jones, 2002, cited by Greenwood, 2003, p.187).WWF for example, has given great priority in influencing EU environmental policy and legislation and have created a “European Policy Office” with 20 people staff, that aims to relate with the Directorate General for the Environment or the Parliaments Environment, Public Health and Consumer Affairs Committee, among others (Long, Salter & Singer , 2002, p.87). As Greenwood (2003, p.187) characteristically wrote, the environmental Public Interests actors are:
Ηighly capable of engaging policy-making at a scientific level, and their dedication to the cause can give them an advantage over Business associations struggling with a variety of issues in EU policy-making coming at them.
Long, Salter and Singer (2002, pp.89-95), for example, mentioned that in a case of energy source companies, the result was that Business associations like ERT and UNICE were disregarded, despite of the fact that the result had great impact on their interests. Additionally, in other cases, transnational Business actors “collaborate with ‘light green’ interests groups, if there is an agreement of interests” (Greenwood, p.188).
Furthermore, most of the G8 NGOs have succeeded in creating close relations with DG Environment and this gave them the opportunity to "sit on the General Advisory Forum on the Environment and Sustainable Development" (Greenwood, 2003, p. 192). Moreover, they come together with the Cabinet of DG Environment every “six to eight weeks” and “once a year” with the President of the Commission (Greenwood, 2003, p. 192). These gave them, apart from credibility towards their members, the opportunity to influence policy-making and bring EU closer to its grassroots. The “establishment of a structured dialogue between organised civil society and the different levels of government” is the necessary precondition for enhancement EU’s democracy. (“Democracy, Governance”, April 20th, 2006). For example, Greenpeace in a campaign over the drinking water directive “achieved an EP amendment about pesticide limits which the Commission accepted despite the opinions of its own scientific adviser (Warleigh, 2002, cited by Greenwood, 2003, p.194). Or, on the other hand, WWF took the initiative to actively influence issues such as “the clean development mechanism”, “reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels” etc. (Long, Salter, singer, pp.88-103).
Furthermore, the Environmental NGOs despite of some weaknesses such as intense EU funding - Greenpeace is the sole Environmental NGO that do not receive any funding from the European Commission - have succeeded in “engaging policy-making through formulation, implementation and monitoring” (Greenwood, 2003, p.196). They have also succeeded in motivating million of peoples to “care” about EU environment and “helped to shape not only the thinking of policy actors such as the Commission and producer groups, but also Member States preferences towards Environmental protection policies” (Greenwood, 2003, p.196). Environmental NGOs have succeeded a fundamental precondition for tackling EU’s democratic deficit: they transformed all environmental issues as subjects for common discussion between EU citizens while they gave them the opportunity to act.
The aim of this essay was to examine the extend that the increased influence on policy-making of transnationally constituted actors enhance the quality of democracy within the EU. It was argued, in the first part, that transnational constituted actors such as Public interest associations enhance the quality of democracy within the EU. Though, as it was argued, greater enhancement and effectiveness could be succeeded if NGOs improve their internal structure by succeeding: greater independence, improvement of the internal democratic structure, improvement of their perceptive influence on members and supporters, and as Warleigh wrote (2001, p.632) greater concentration on the Politicization of their supporters rather than Service Delivery. Moreover, the second part of this essay focused its analysis on Environmental transnational actors that is claimed by numerous scholars, such as Greenwood, to be the most active among Public interests associations. Environmental actors, their action in policy-making, legislation and effective representation were some of the issues that were analyzed in this part.
As Vivien Schmidt (2004, p.977) wrote, “democracy in the European Union should not only concern government by the people but also government of the people or government with the people through contact interaction with organized interests”. The White Paper in the European Governance, originated in 2001, was focused in the way that EU treats the powers that is given by its citizens. As the White Papers declares: “reform must be started now, so that people see changes before further modification of the EU Treaties” (p.3). The White Paper aims in promoting good governance by five steps: openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence (p.10). The European Union need to give people an opportunity for greater involvement that will end up in greater responsibility and effectiveness of policy implementation. Even more, the White Paper promoted consultation and dialogue between EU and Interest associations; this will give civil society the opportunity to play an important role by “giving voice to the concerns of citizens and delivering services that meet people’s needs” (White Paper, 2001, p.30). Furthermore, it is significantly essential in lessening EU’s problem of democratic deficit, important decision to be taken (Global Policy Forum, 2001): European Union’s reform effort must, on the one hand, include “stronger structured civil dialogue” and on the other hand, should aim in “further improvement of non-governmental organisations” (Global Policy Forum, 2001).
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European Studies
This blogspot will be my companion through the whole process of my Research effort. I will start my PhD soon and this journey will last at least 3 years. I hope you will not be bored of my effort to shed light in interesting paths such as the European youth Plicy and European Youth Associations.
My PhD is a part of the broad issue of European Studies and specifically in Transnational Europe. I wish you a pleasant time and hope to check my blogspot often enough to be uptodated in several issues such as Europeanization adn Socialization. Thank you.
My PhD is a part of the broad issue of European Studies and specifically in Transnational Europe. I wish you a pleasant time and hope to check my blogspot often enough to be uptodated in several issues such as Europeanization adn Socialization. Thank you.
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