Private Interest Representation or Civil Society Deliberation? A Contemporary Dilemma for European Union Governance

Abstract

The European Commission’s White Paper on Governance in July 2001 focused attention, in a rather preliminary manner, on the role that ‘civil society’ could and should play in the process of further democratizing decision-making in the European Union. ‘Civil society’ has itself been trying to make this point for some years in the European context and now seems to have acquired some institutional allies in that regard. The European Economic and Social Committee has in particular been very focused and vocal in recent years, maintaining that the institutional ‘home’ for civil society should be within its putatively deliberative and inclusive structures. This rather corporatist view of fitting increasing civil society interest and activity into the existing interest representation model of the EU, which is shared by the Commission, risks ignoring the much more political role that certain strands of civil society are seeking: namely a space in which deliberation can publicly take place on values and policies.