CONNEX Research Group 4 Civil society and interest representation in EU governance

Transcription

1 CONNEX Research Group 4 Civil society and interest representation in EU governance Project team A: Interest representation in European multi-level governance Work package A3: Managing interest representation in the EU Workshop Managing Interest Representation in the EU in Vilnius, May, 2005 organized by Arūnas Augustinaitis, Detailed Programme May 13, Friday Workshop Opening Beate Kohler-Koch, Keynote Speech on Dominant Trends and Changing Patterns in EU Interest Intermediation Session Rainer Eising Political Access and the Public Status of Business Interests in the European Union Nieves Pérez-Solórzano Borragán EU Enlargement and the Structures for Interest Representation in the New Member States Lunch break Session Oliver Blank European Trade Associations: Efficient and Effective Representation of Heterogeneous Interests Tony Venables Organizing Weak Interests: Giving Voice to the European Citizen Coffee break Session Simone Leiber European Social Partnership Hits Home: Implementing EU Social Policy Directives Elina Egle Strengthening Social and Economic Partnership in the Multilevel EU Discussions May 14, Saturday Opening Plenary Session Jan Beyers Interest Politics in the EU: Networking Bureaucrats, Politicians and Interest Groups Charis Хirouchakis EU Council's Relations with Interest Groups and Civic Actors Coffee break Session Jim Murray Representing Consumer Interests at the European Level Rasma Pīpīte, Lunch break Session Coffee Break Dirk Jarré The European Economic and Social Committee: A privileged representative of European civil society? Discussions

2 Summing up and final debate May 15, Sunday Paper Session for Doctoral Students Iglika Yakova Czech Republic, Europe and the Farmers: how is Agricultural Interest Intermediation Affected by the Accession EU Kerstin Wilde The Relation between Public Administration and Civil Society Interests in the EU Saulius Spurga Formation of Transnational Interest Groups in the EU: Interest Groups and Civil Society in Lithuania Florentina Constantin Interest Representation in the EU: the Question of Romanian and Italian Trade Unions Response to Europeanization Participants Augustinaitis Arūnas Bagdonienė Sigita Blank Oliver Beyers Jan Biskop Edita Bražiūnaitė Viktorija Constantin Florentina Knowledge Society Management Institute Institute of International Relations and Political Science ZVEI, Zentralverband Elektrotechnik und Elektronikindustrie e.v. Leiden University, Department of Political Science National Consumer Rights Protection Board under the Ministry of Justice Polish Academy of Sciences, Graduate School for Social Research&Ca Foskari Univ. Daniliauskas Jonas Strategic Studies Center Dromantienė L. Faculty of Social Work Eising Rainer University of Hagen Egle Elina Latvian Employer s Confederation elina@lddk.lv Grigaliūnaitė Jolanta jgrigal@mruni.lt Yakova Iglika Institut d Etudes Politiques de Paris iglika.yakova@sciences-po.org Jakimavičienė Valentina Jarré Dirk rvisuom@mruni.lt European Economic and Social dirkjarre@aol.com Committee (EESC) Janova Karina Soros Foundation-Latvia karina@sfl.lv Kohler-Koch Beate University of Mannheim bkohler@uni-mannheim.de Kuprova Hana Ministry of Trade and Industry kuprova@mpo.cz Kuzmickas flk@mruni.lt Bronislavas Juozas Leiber Simone Institute of Economic and Social Simone-Leiber@boeckler.de Research, Düsseldorf Liudvinovičienė agnldv@mruni.lt Agnė Mačiukaitė-Žvinienė doktor@mruni.lt Saulė Murray Jim The European Consumers Association gol@beuc.org BEUC Paulikas Vygandas vpaul@mruni.lt

3 Faculty of Public Management Perez-Solorzano University of East Anglia School of Borragan Nieves Political, Social and International Studies Petrauskas Rimantas Rimantas Petrauskas Social Informatics Department Pipike Rasma Civic Alliance-Latvia Poviliūnas Audrius Center for Project Management Puškorius Stasys Faculty of Public Management Spurga Saulius Stračinskienė Laura Sudnickas Tadas Faculty of Public Management Venables Tony European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) Wilde Kerstin University Mannheim/MZES Xirouchakis Charis The Council of Europe Union eu.int Report Summary The major objective of CONNEX User Workshop was to emphasize the empirical questions of interest representation in European multi-level governance. The following issues were analyzed during the workshop: diverse experiences, detected underlying patterns and introduced examples for best practices development. The profound discussion during the workshop was highly facilitated by a set of papers prepared by the workshop participants. The following topics were covered during the workshop: Interest intermediation and interest politics in European Union (Beate Kohler-Koch, University of Mannheim and Jan Beyers, University of Leiden) Business interests in European Union (Rainer Eising, University of Hagen and Oliver Blank, German Association of Electrical and Electronics Industry ZVEI) Influence of EU enlargement on interest representation in the new member states (Nieves Pérez-Solórzano Borragán and Iglika Yakova, Institut d Etudes Politiquies) Strengthening European social partnership (Simone Leiber, Institute of Economic and Social Research and Elina Egle, Latvian Employer s Confederation) Presenting EU institutions approach towards interest representation (Charis Xirouchakis, Council of the EU and Dirk Jarré, European Economic and Social Committee EESC) Presenting experience of interest group organizations acting at European Union level (Tony Venables, European Citizen Action Service ECAS, Brussels and Jim Murray, the European Consumers Association BEUC, Brussels) How to research the interaction between the European Commission and societal actors, some examples from research practice (Kerstin Wilde, University of Mannheim).

4 Attendance CONNEX User Workshop gathered a group of experts, academics, representatives of business associations, trade unions, NGOs and EU officials who approached access to EU institutions, lobbying strategies, various patterns of interest representation and intermediation from different perspectives. The workshop was attended by 5 scholars from Europe working on topics related to interest representation in the EU, and joined by 2 representatives from EU institutions (Council of the EU, European Economic and Social Committee EESC). Some of the speakers have also had practical experience in the NGO sector (trade unions, employer s confederation, consumers association, European Citizen Actions Service). Doctoral students were invited to participate in the last workshop day in order to take a look at ongoing research work and analysis. It should be noted that one of the workshop s peculiarities was also that it displayed a very low interest of new member states in the workshop topic and this could be the next aspect for analysis. Introductory session Prof. Beate Kohler-Koch made an introductory presentation, focusing on the demand and supply issues of the lobbying market at the EU level. On the one hand, interest groups consider it important to pursue their goals via EU legislation due to its considerable scope and application. On the other hand, interest groups are expected to participate in the decisionmaking process, as these links enhance participatory democracy and contribute to civil dialogue. Therefore, lobbying is considered as an appropriate behavior by EU institutions. Lobbying has developed as a path dependency since the European Coal and Steel Community, gaining importance with every substantial landmark of European integration. Competition between interest groups is not equal; interest groups, which are stronger and have more resources, gain an advantage over weaker ones. Due to the heavy competition on EU lobbying market, it is important to develop a multi-level strategy. EU institutions, for example the European Commission, are trying to correct this situation by strengthening diffuse interest groups, which tend to become their property. The European Economic and Social Committee and the European Parliament also play a role in civil dialogue. However, the European Economic and Social Committee has little impact, the European Parliament can be fragmented while the European Commission mainly focuses on the national support in the Council. All these aspects particularly create difficulties for interest groups from small member states in transformation, as it is difficult to make an impact in the already-crowded lobbying scene. Thus, cooperation opportunities should not be underestimated. EU is a natural ally of civil society and its structures should seek to find the fold and to put forward proposals. Key concepts and issues Analyzing interest politics in the EU, it was pointed out that competence and information are necessary resources for useful contacts with officials of the EU and that media plays an important role for performing lobbyism in Brussels. In the area of representing lobbying particularities from a practical approach it was emphasized, that the best way to lobby is to become a part of information network, which includes EU institutions and that successful interest representation comprises the following four key stages: focusing, coordinating, networking and active lobbying. Discussing the influence of EU enlargement on interest representation in the new member states focused one s attention on the effect of Europeanisation. There was a consensus regarding new EU member states encountering multiple difficulties, as they lack coordination, facilities, networking skills and lobbying power. New EU member states are moving in the direction of learning processes despite the fact that these processes are relatively timeconsuming.

5 The strategy for social partners was outlined regarding issues of actual framework of socialeconomic partnerships in the enlarged EU and impact of present changes in multilevel EU. As to specifically strengthen European social partnership one should bear in mind the potential Europeanisation effects on national public-private interactions and the fact that national social partnership is changed by EU social policy. Enlargement of EU also reinforces the dilemma in social policy: weaker social partnership in new member states makes autonomous social partner activity even less effective. It was forecast, that new EU Constitutional Treaty impact on interest representation will streamline decision-making, change the environment for lobbying, place more importance upon advocacy with influential MEPs, and that social partners will retain strengthening effective impact on the political decision making process. The perspectives emerging from the European Constitution in the context of civil society participation in the democratic life of EU were presented while introducing the EU institutions approach towards interest representation in the EU which develops in the directions leading to its improvement: changing role of EU as a collective organization, the growing role of separate committees towards interest intermediation, enlargement vs. deepening, and the challenge of civil society engagement in EU decision making. Presenting experience of Euro-level NGOs included suggestions how the European citizen and EU institutions should act in the interest representation area. According to the new EU Constitutional Treaty citizens receive a much more central position and guaranties that the EU will not interfere unnecessarily in domestic affairs. New EU Constitutional Treaty provides EU citizens with more visible European rights with the citizen as interlocutor, with more enforceable rights and with the right to participate and propose legislative initiatives. However, there were doubts (according to the statement of the new EU Constitutional Treaty) that society will be democratized by EU institutions, which are biased and probably will be more favorable to those, who possess more resources. The last workshop session was carried out in a tight ring of young researchers who presented their PhD projects which major advantages and disadvantages were discussed. Hopefully, this session was useful to doctoral students because many useful proposals about structure and methodology were put forward. Doctoral Students presentations examined how accession to EU affects intermediation of interest groups in Central and Eastern European countries (Czech case study) and focused on the shaping of a new frame of reference of the role of farmers. Also, a diversified pattern was determined of interest representation in the EU of new member countries according to defined characteristics (Lithuanian case study). The activity of Italian and Romanian trade unions at the European level with their internal and external processes, such as demand of transnational unionism, revival of civil society aspects, parallelism of institutionalization and European integration influence trade unions activity were investigated. Kerstin Wilde from Mannheim University presented the research project EU-Society Relations and the Formation of a Multi-Level Intermediary Space (I): The EU- Commission and the Structure of a European Intermediary Space analyzing the interaction between the European Commission and societal actors in a top-down perspective, the sectorspecific interplay between the different public and societal actors and presented a comparison between the involvement of societal actors at global, regional and national levels of governance. Achievements The workshop stressed empirical questions of interest representation in European multi-level governance including also access to EU institutions, lobbying strategies, various new member states patterns of interest representation, intermediation, and social partnership. The dominant tendencies of interest representation in the EU, the results of research work and various topicalities such as impact of forthcoming new EU Constitutional Treaty were discussed. The participants profited from the expertise of users and, therefore, established links with the

6 European Economic and Social Committee, Euro-level NGOs (BEUC, ECAS) and also grassroot organizations aiming to achieve access to European wide networks. Planned outcome The next step in this part will be publishing the overview of workshop in the academic journal Public Policy and Administration of. Responsible for report: Arūnas Augustinaitis, (May 2005)