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Brussels, 29 May 2013
MINUTESof the 24th meeting
of the
Liaison Group
with European civil society organisations and networks
held at the Committee building in Brussels
on 17 December 2012
______
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The Liaison Group with European civil society organisations and networks held its 24th meeting in Brussels on 17December 2012, under the joint chairmanship of Staffan Nilsson, president of the EESC, and Jean-Marc Roirant, president of the European Civic Forum (ECF). The meeting started at 2.30 p.m. and finished at around 4.45 p.m.
ATTENDANCE LIST
- Members of the Liaison Group present
EESC representatives
MrStaffan NilssonMrSandy Boyle
MrMr Bryan Cassidy
MrGeorgios Dassis
MrEdgardo Iozia
MrJoost van Iersel
MrHans-Joachim Wilms / President of the EESC
President of the REX section
President of the INT section
Group II President
President of the Single Market Observatory (SMO)
President of the Europe 2020 Steering Committee
President of the Sustainable Development Observatory (SDO)
Representatives of European civil society organisations and networks
Members
MrJean-Marc RoirantMrPierre Barge
MrLuca Bergamo
MsGabriella Civico
MrDiogo Pinto
MrJan Robert Suesser / Vice-president of the European Civic Forum (ECF)
President of the European Association for Human Rights (EAHR)
Secretary-General of Culture Action Europe
Director, The European Volunteer Centre (CEV)
Secretary-General of the International European Movement (IEM)
Vice-president of the European Civic Forum (ECF)
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Alternates
MsOonaghAitkenMsCarlotta Besozzi
MsEmmanuelle Faure
MsAudrey Frith / Director, (CSV) Community Service Volunteers, member of the Volonteurope Management Board
Director, European Disability Forum (EDF)
European Affairs Senior Officer, European Foundation Centre (EFC)
President of the European civil society platform on lifelong learning
(EUCIS-LLL)
- Other representatives of European civil society organisations and networks
MsTanya Basarab
MsDorsaf Ben Dhiab
MrJan Bleus
MrDirk Gotzmann
MsEdurne Grau
MrThomas Heckeberg
Mr Oliver Henman
MrDavid Lopez
MsEwelina Marzec
MsIlina Nesik
MsAnne-Charlotte Oriol
MsAnna Ranki
MrPiotr Sadowski
MrVladimir Šestović / European Anti Poverty Network (EAPN)
Member of the Board of directors, European Forum of Muslim Women (EFOMW)
Network Officer, European Network of National Civil Society Associations (ENNA)
CIVILSCAPE
CIVES Foundation (Spain)
Permanent representative of European Network for Education and Training e.V. (EUNET)
Network Officer, European Network of National Civil Society Associations (ENNA)
Member of the Board of Directors, European Civic Forum (ECF)
Coordinator for the European Year 2013 at theEuropean Civic Forum (ECF)
Project and Communication Manager, Balkans Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN)
European Projects Officer at the European Civic Forum (ECF)
Policy coordinator, European Youth Forum (EYF)
General Secretary of Volonteurope
Assistant, European Projects, European Civic Forum (ECF)
- Other participants
MrJamal Shahin
MrGeorgios Terzis
MsAlison Woodward / Professor, Institute for European Studies (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Professor, Institute for European Studies (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Professor, Institute for European Studies (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
- Members of the Liaison Group absent
EESC representatives
MrStéphane BuffetautMrMario Campli
MrLuca Jahier (apologies received)
MsLeila Kurki (apologies received)
MrHenri Malosse (apologies received)
MrKrzysztof Pater
MrJorge Pegado Liz
MrMichael Smyth / President of the TEN section
President of the NAT section
President of the Various Interests Group
President of the SOC section
President of Group I
President of the Labour Market Observatory (LMO)
President of the CCMI
President of the ECO section
Representatives of European civil society organisations and networks
Members
MrOlivier ConsoloMsArielle Garcia
MsCécile Greboval
MsMonique Goyens
MrChristopher Harrison
(apologies received)
MrMogens Kirkeby
Ms Monika Kosinska
MrMaciej Kucharczyk
MrGérard Peltre
MrÉtienne Pflimlin
MrGiuseppe Porcaro
MrConny Reuter (apologies received)
MrGerry Salole
MsAgnes Uhereczky
MrLuk Zelderloo / Director of the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development (CONCORD)
Deputy director of the Federation of French Mutual Health Insurance Schemes (FNMF)
Secretary-General, European Women's Lobby (EWL)
Director-General of the European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC)
Former president of the European School Heads Association (ESHA)
President, International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA)
Secretary-General of the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA)
Director-General of the European Older People's Platform (AGE)
Director of the Rurality-Environment-Development International Association (RED)
Co-president of Cooperatives Europe
Secretary-General of the European Youth Forum (EYF)
President of the Platform of European Social NGOs
Director-General of the European Foundation Centre (EFC)
Director of the Confederation of Family Organisations in the EU (COFACE)
Secretary-General of the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD)
Alternates
MsSerap Altinisik (apologies received)MrPatrice Collignon
MrJulien Dijol
MsAnnemie Drieskens
(apologies received)
MsSabine Frank
MsJana Hainsworth
MrDirk Jarré
MrGérard Leseul (apologies received)
MrPeter Matjašič
MsAlexandrina Najmowicz
(apologies received)
MsUrsula Pachl
MrChristian Wenning / Policy Officer, European Women's Lobby (EWL)
Director of the Rurality-Environment-Development International Association (RED)
Policy coordinator, European Liaison Committee for Social Housing (CECODHAS)
President of the Confederation of Family Organisations in the EU (COFACE)
Secretary-General of the Platform for Intercultural Europe
Secretary-General of Eurochild
International Cooperation Officer, European Federation of Older People (EURAG)
Deputy general delegate, Coordinating Committee of European Cooperative Associations (CCACE)
Secretary-General of the European Youth Forum (EYF)
Coordinator, European Civic Forum (ECF)
Deputy director-General of the European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC)
Secretary-General of the Union of European Federalists (UEF)
- EESC Secretariat
MrMartin Westlake
MsMaria Echevarria
MrPatrick Fève
MrChristian Weger
MsCoralia Catana
MsMaarit Laurila / Secretary-General
Director for General Affairs
Head of Unit for Relations with civil society organisations, constitutional affairs
Administrator, Unit for Relations with civil society organisations, constitutional affairs
Member of the EESC president's private office
Member of the EESC president's private office
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Staffan Nilsson welcomed participants and outlined the items on the agenda.
He said that he had wanted on this occasion to open the meeting to European organisations and networks that were part of the European Year of Citizens 2013 Alliance but not already members of the Liaison Group. This was so that they could join in the debate that would follow the presentation of the study entitled The Impact of the Crisis on Civil Society Organisations in the EU: Risks and Opportunities, as summary of which had been made available to those present.
In this connection, he also touched briefly on the cooperation between the EESC and the Alliance on various initiatives to be implemented in the course of 2013 as part of the European Year of Citizens, in particular the next Civil Society Day, to be held on 6 March.
Finally, he announced his intention, in agreement with Jean-Marc Roirant, to hold a final meeting of the Liaison Group in March, before the end of this term of office as the Committee's president. The purpose of that meeting would be to assess the group's work over the last two years and to launch a process of thinking about possibilities for the future, especially work priorities, and any improvements that might be made in its working methods with a view to making it more efficient and increasing the added value of the cooperation between the EESC and European civil society organisations and networks.
1.Adoption of the draft agenda (R/CESE 2467/2012)
The draft agenda was adopted.
2.Approval of the minutes of the 23rd meeting, held on 10 September 2012 (CESE2259/2012)
The minutes were approved.
3.Presentation of a study commissioned by the EESC on The Impact of the Crisis on Civil Society Organisations in the EU: Risks and Opportunities
Staffan Nilsson welcomed the authors of the study, Jamal Shahin, Georgios Terzis and Alison Woodward, researchers at the Institute for European Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (IES-VUB), and invited MrShahin to present the main conclusions.
Jamal Shahin first explained that the authors had not wanted to focus on the specific needs of civil society organisations in the light of the financial crisis, but rather to approach the subject from a broader perspective, namely the way in which these organisations were affected by the crisis, and to analyse not only the risks they ran, but also the resulting opportunities. As part of this, the authors also thought it was useful to examine the different ways available to civil society to interact with political decision-makers at EU, national and regional levels from four perspectives: voice, opportunities, engagement and funding.
The voice of a civil society organisations is the way in which it can express itself vis-à-vis the outside world, how the message that it has to communicate is transmitted to the public at large. The opportunities raise the question of the space available to CSOs to establish contact with political decision-makers and to interact with them. Engagement was about how far the public is involved in these organisations. Finally, when it came to financing, the question arose of how CSOs act or must act in order to be able to benefit from the public and private funding they need to carry out their work.
In terms of methodology, the point was not to carry out an exhaustive study on all civil society organisations in Europe, but to approach the issue from a qualitative rather than quantitative point of view. Questionnaires were sent out, in-depth interviews conducted, especially with CSO officers, and a number of existing reports were analysed.
On the question of CSOs getting their voice heard, Mr Shahin said the findings showed that some organisations had realised that by acting across sectors and forging alliances among themselves, they increased their chances of getting their voice heard beyond their traditional sphere of operations, resulting in increased efficiency in both interaction with public authorities and management of the resources they had available.
CSOs had thus grasped the need for a change in the way they get their message across, going beyond their sectoral concerns and creating a more collaborative environment in which they can be more effective in facing the consequences of the crisis, especially regarding their funding, given the budget cuts imposed by public authorities in their areas of operation.
Getting your voice heard was also about engagement. On this front, the study found a greater willingness of people to get involved in CSOs with a particularly strong and clear message to impart and with which the public could identify. This was particularly true for the social sphere, which often attracted people who had no previous involvement in the voluntary sector. In other areas, CSOs had seen a drop in membership and, hence, in involvement.
Funding was a recurrent problem for CSOs and the situation was rather grave given the crisis. The issue was all the more critical for small local organisations that had been hit full on by the budget cuts and had no alternative means of compensating for loss of funding. It was noted that many regional and local organisations were looking more frequently to the European level for funding in a bid to ensure continued funding streams through EU programmes.
Even so, the fact remained that for all CSOs the main funding sources were generally at risk, with some organisations having lost all public funding. The situation differed, however, from one sector to the next. Cultural CSOs, for example, had been directly affected, while those dealing with the environment had actually seen a rise in funding, though this would not necessarily continue over the long term.
This general situation had led CSOs to look to different economic models, be it membership fees or other ways of appealing to members to contribute. There had been a change of approach on funding. Added to this was the fact that paying of membership fees, for example, was a very tangible form of commitment from the public.
When it came to the opportunities that CSOs had, the need to cope with the consequences of the economic and social crisis had justified the increased requirement for them to work more closely with public authorities. It had to be said, however, that the opportunities to interact with these were on the decline because of budget cuts in particular spheres of operation. This meant that CSOs had to adopt a new language of communication, to develop greater managerial know-how and to demonstrate greater flexibility in the discourse they employed. All of this provided opportunities for CSOs to emerge strengthened from the crisis.
Mr Shahin made it clear that the overall picture was not very encouraging for civil society organisations. There were very clear changes for the worse in terms of both funding and the attitude of public bodies towards these organisations. In addition, the logic underpinning interaction between CSOs and these authorities had changed. What had been essentially a political landscape had become more one of finance.
This said, the more collaborative approach adopted by some CSOs did offer some opportunities. This was an indication that these CSOs had realised the advantages of passing from their special interests and acting and working in a more intersectoral framework. There was therefore more solidarity and cooperation between CSOs dealing with very different sectoral problems. The concept of European civil society was thus undergoing a process of maturing that opened up interesting prospects for increasing the responsibilities of CSOs in decision-making processes as part of a deepening debate on the way in which civil society positioned itself in relation to political decision-makers and interacted with them.
Against this backdrop, national ESCs and the EESC had an important role to play in encouraging the development of horizontal interaction between CSOs at all levels.
The crisis had also generated new types of public involvement outside of civil society organisations, such as "occupation" movement or that of the indignados, that had led to new kinds of interaction between citizens and CSOs and among CSOs themselves. The question was how these forms of engagement would develop in the future.
Following this presentation, Staffan Nilsson opened the floor for discussion.
Joost van Iersel highlighted the differences between civil society organisations, which meant they had to be considered individually according to their specific traits. He warned against making hasty – and inevitably mistaken – comparisons. The difficulties these organisations were facing because of the crisis, for example, also differed. This was also true for national ESCs, which differed considerably, especially in composition, institutional position and powers.
Referring to the EU2020 strategy, he stressed that this would only be successful if there was strong civil society commitment. This being the case, he said that national ESCs should not be put on the same level as CSOs, not only for obvious structural reasons, but also because of their competences and responsibilities.
Regarding the impact of the crisis, his own experience led him to believe that CSOs that embarked on the path of greater professionalisation would be better equipped than others to cope with the consequences of the current economic and financial crisis. This professionalisation would, he felt, be the key in the future. Finally, he expressed his support for intersectoral interaction between CSOs, not only to achieve greater efficiency, but also in order to draw on a more horizontal approach in addressing some issues, taking on board all their dimensions.
Jean Robert Suesser began by voicing a number of more general considerations on civil society and public engagement. He went on to stress that the crisis had many dimensions, affecting EU Member Sates differently and giving rise to different expectations from the public. This called for responses that were also different from all the players involved in tackling the consequences of the crisis. The same applied to CSOs, especially those in the social sphere, where the impact of the crisis would not be the same in one country as in the next. He expressed his doubts, therefore, about the study's general recommendations, which tended to give the impression that the situation was the same all over the EU.
He went on to stress that there were times in our societies when people felt more inclined to get involved and be more active. This was the case when a situation that seemed initially quite good becomes worse, as in Greece. The same applied in reverse, when a situation regarded as bad got better, as in the Arab Spring. In both cases, however, civil society was reinvigorated because of the effects brought about by these changes in situation, with the people voicing the new expectations. The crisis had two paradoxical effects, which he drew on the case of Greece to illustrate. In that country, one could see, on the one hand, a strong surge for the extreme right, which must be seen as a kind of participation. On the other hand, people showed greater civic engagement and solidarity in seeking to address tangible problems that arose.