Input to the Design of the Civil Society Facility

POLICY BRIEF

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS

- input to the design of the civil society facility

of the European Commission

1

Introduction

The Foundation Open Society Institute - Macedonia (FOSIM) and the Macedonian Centre for European Training (MCET) drafted these recommendations to contribute to the designing of the Civil Society Facility for the Western Balkans, as foreseen by the last Communication[1] of the European Commission. The purpose of this paper is to give an opportunity to the Macedonian civil society to play a proactive role and influence policy making in terms of the EC funds made available for Macedonia and the Western Balkan countries. Therefore, we invited civil society organisations from the country to join this initiative and support these recommendations.

This initiative was inspired by the conference “Developing Dialogue and Partnership between Civil Society, National Governments and European Institutions” which took place 2nd April 2008 in Brdo, Slovenia as part of the Slovenian Presidency with the EU. Two representatives from DG Enlargement[2] presented a draft design of the Civil Society Facility with its components in the course of the conference. Due to the fact that the current design is in a very rough stage, we believe that this is the right time to respond and articulate our suggestions. The purpose of this policy brief is to propose recommendations and to contribute to the design of the facility for the Western Balkans[3]. Immediate response is also important since the final decision on the Facility will be taken at the end of June 2008. These recommendations will be communicated to the European Commission representatives in Brussels (DG Enlargement) at the “Civil Society Development in Southeast Europe” conference, 17-18 April 2008 in Brussels.

Due to limited time for soliciting support for this policy brief, we communicated the recommendations to civil society organisations in Macedonia[4]. A list of the civil society organisations (CSOs) supporting this brief can be found in the Annex of the document.

Role of civil society

The role of civil society in the development in a democracy has never been questioned neither by the European Union, nor by the national governments in the Western Balkan countries. Different efforts have been undertaken in the region to boost the development of civil society by various actors. Despite the significant financial assistance allocated not only by the EU through the CARDS programme - especially the Regional CARDS programme – and other bilateral assistance and private foundations[5], satisfactory results have still not been achieved yet.

In the last Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament – Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2007-2008, dated 6.11.2007 COM(2007)663, the European Commission points out that "Civil society is an essential element of European public life. Western Balkan countries have made efforts to adopt legislation and strategies that are more favourable to civil society development. Some first steps have been taken towards more participatory democracy. However, civil society remains weak in the region. Wars and ethnic strife have done major damage to the social fabric of the region. Local NGOs need training to adapt to present conditions. Further efforts are required to deepen the freedom of association, to put in place regulatory frameworks and public incentives for the development of civil society organisations[6]".

Although the state of affairs of civil society in the Western Balkan countries is different in terms of the legal and the strategic framework, and the level of capacity to deal with issues of national relevance, some problems are common. In Albania, for example, "there is a favourable legal framework for civil society organisations, however, civil society groups remain weak. They are not sufficiently involved in policy-making and lack resources, operational capacity, advocacy skills and regional links"[7]. In other countries, like Bosnia and Herzegovina, "some progress has been made as regards the support provided by the authorities to civil society development, even though the sector remains weak overall[8]. In almost all of the countries[9] civil society is hardly consulted in the preparation of national strategic documents. National governments tend to express doubts in the input of civil society organisations, thus they don't consult them at all or, if they do, the form of consultation is dubious and non-governmental organisations are merely decorum in the process. The case of the European Commission is somewhat different. In recent years, notwithstanding the fact that consultations can always be improved, the Delegations of the European Commission have adopted a consultation practice[10]. To what extend civil society proposals are included in the final documents is an entirely different matter.

Funding problems

Civil society organisations in the whole region are faced with funding problems. Regardless of the financial assistance made available to the region through bilateral or EC assistance, very rarely institutional support was offered. Non-governmental organisations need core funding which will not be a possibility in the near future if one is to analyze the budgets of the governments in the region. At first glance, it seems that a great deal of funds are allocated to civil society organisations, but further analysis points out to the fact that the organisations supported are just the "traditional" partner-organisations[11] of the governments. Of course, this is not to say that such organisations should not be funded, but it does demonstrate the lack of strategically directed support on the part of the governments in the region translated into transparent financing criteria.

Lack of capacity

Lack of capacity of understanding EU institutions and policies is also one of the common features in the region. This is true for both governments and the civil society organisations. In addition, it seems difficult to keep pace with the developments taking place on the level of the EU which is demonstrated by the fact that neither the governments nor the CSOs are repositioning themselves accordingly. The mitigating factor for building the capacity of the governments is the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance and projects developed as part of the enlargement strategy of the EU. Capacity building as a cross-cutting issue of all EC projects[12], bears benefits for the beneficiaries that, almost by rule, are central government institutions. Civil society organisations however, have limited involvement in these projects and consequently face difficulties in upgrading the knowledge previously acquired[13], if any. Only in the last two years the EU has adopted a new financial perspective, reorganized the Community Programmes into Framework Programmes, adopted new financial instruments, and finally, adopted the new Reform Treaty which gives new flavour to the enlargement process altogether. The Commission rightfully notes "Civil society organizations remain weak and need training to adapt to present circumstances. It is, therefore, important to create conditions conducive to further growth of their activities"[14].

Technical assistance

EC projects are usually implemented in the form of technical assistance, and their purpose is to improve the general performance of the institutions. The main problem however, is that although funds are available, they do not reach civil society organizations. Technical assistance is primarily needed by the managing public bodies, but should be extended and reorganized to help civil society organisations contribute in the implementation of the projects.

Think-tanks

A special role can be envisaged for think-tank organisations in the region to conduct research and engage in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economy, science or technology issues, industrial or business policies. Most think-tanks are non-profit organizations. While many think-tanks are funded by governments, interest groups or businesses, the think-tanks from the region find it difficult to operate, not only because of the lack of funding available, but also because of the political pressures they are exposed to from the governments. The Commission gives the example with CSOs in Montenegro in its Communication by acknowledging that "civil society remains fragile and tensions between government bodies and non-governmental organisations persist"[15]. Some efforts to network think-tank organisations from the Western Balkans have been made in the past, but this seems to be an area where additional investments are required, especially in light of the horisontal issues. Moreover, the EU has made perfectly clear that "Countries joining the EU must fully embrace the fundamental principles of equality between women and men (as one of the horisontal issues). They must ensure strict enforcement of legislation and put in place adequate administrative and judicial systems. Monitoring the transposition, implementation and enforcement of the EU gender equality legislation will be an EU priority for future enlargement processes[16]". Similar is the case with good governance or to be more specific, anti-corruption mechanisms. On top of that, the Western Balkan governments have limited capacity in dealing with these issues, thus it makes sense to invest in local CSOs and think-tanks from the region.

Bringing EU into the Western Balkans

Eventually the European Commission has understood that the enlargement process will only be successful if the links between Member States and Western Balkan countries are strengthened and incorporated within the development strategies of the countries. The best way to promote enlargement is through the mutual connections of the citizens acting within their respective open societies through CSOs. As the Commission puts it "Mutual knowledge and understanding require further development of civil society and of dialogue between the citizens of the EU Member-States and the enlargement countries. Support for civil society is key to mutual understanding and to strengthening the fabric of democracy across society[17]". A strong civil society sector "...is in the interest of the European Union, and of Europe as a whole, that the region should go ahead as rapidly as possible with political and economic reform, reconciliation among peoples and progress towards the EU[18].

The political environment on the Western Balkans is very unstable. The general public finds it difficult to cope with EU issues in general, and to keep pace with the dynamic processes happening on the EU level, especially in terms of enlargement. EU issues are misused for daily politics, especially during election campaigns. Politicians usually like to take the credit when the country produces the outputs from the reforms incurred from the EU agenda without even mentioning the merits of the EU, but they also tend to “blame” most of the difficult unpopular decisions on the EU agenda as well. From the perspective of the general public this is most confusing. Civil society has a very important role to play in communicating the benefits of EU enlargement in line with conclusion (j) from the Communication of the Commission which states that "it remains essential to ensure public support for enlargement. It is important to listen to citizens and to respond to their concerns through the provision of clear and factual information. Communicating enlargement is a shared responsibility. It needs active involvement of Member States"[19]. To help communicate enlargement more effectively, the Commission invites the governments of the Member States and the candidate and potential candidate-countries to draw up communication plans[20].

Recommendations

Further to the recommendations contained in the Ljubljana Declaration on Civil Society Development and in line with the position taken by the European Commission, the Foundation Open Society Institute – Macedonia and the Macedonian Centre for European Training propose the following recommendations to be considered in the design of the Civil Society Facility.

1. Trilateral consultations

Trilateral consultations imply consultations among EC Delegation, Government and civil society organizations. For the consultations to be more successful, the documentation[21] should be send to CSOs on time (at least one month prior to the consultation session) thus giving the NGOs an opportunity to get together, discuss, and take a joint position, if possible. Following the consultations, the European Commission should provide access to all comments communicated with the consultation process, including those of the respective government. Finally, when the European Commission organizes consultations with civil society, representatives from the Government – in the case of Macedonia, probably from the Secretariat for European Affairs - should be invited as well. The European Commission should also require the governments from Western Balkans to draw up and publish consultation plans.

2. Institutional support

Funds should be provided for institutional development and core funding. This could operate on co-financing basis (for example 20% will be required from the general budget of the governments). The funds from IPA (I component on institutional building) could be used for setting up a civil society development fund and for developing transparent financing criteria. This fund can be used for matching funds for other European projects as well, for example, for Community Programmes. The civil sector, in cooperation with the designated institution, could also develop commonly acceptable “standards” or benchmarks for the various types of CSOs such as service-providers, advocacy NGOs, policy development think-tanks and local initiatives. Technical assistance can be used for the development of these standards, i.e. a consultant can facilitate the entire process. Once these commonly agreed standards are developed, we can think about making the additional step towards possible accreditation of CSOs.

3. Technical assistance

As the European Commission is already planning 8 million Euro for technical assistance, we suggest the following forms of technical assistance to be used: (i) The Commission could establish a pool of experts[22], from the region and EU Member States, and make them available to CSOs for their specific needs (for example, if an organization wants to develop a lobbying strategy, they will choose an expert from the pool to help the organisation in the strategy development process). The European Commission will cover the cost for hiring that specific expert(s). This very much resembles the voucher system[23] setup in Macedonia. (ii) For the purpose of securing sustainable interventions, it is desirable to use a mix of instruments such as institutional support with technical assistance and government co-financing. (iii) The technical assistance can also be used by the CSOs for developing projects for the Community Programmes, as an additional source of funding that could strengthen the sustainability of the organisations concerned.

4. Support think-tank organisations

The European Commission (Governments as well) will be able to secure factual information directly from the ground and the stakeholders if support is provided to think-tank organisations. The need for this kind of support becomes even more apparent considering the fact that the governments from the region have demonstrated lack of skills for developing strategic documents (even those developed through technical assistance with international consultants have proved unrealistic, thus impossible to implement[24]). In addition, these organizations are important for monitoring the implementation of government policies vis-à-vis EU policies, and assuming the role of watch-dogs in society. The European Commission should make additional efforts and assist the creation of networks between think-tanks from the Western Balkans and think-tanks from EU Member States, thus enabling the transfer of know-how and development of appropriate indicators (methodology) that will initially make sense for Western Balkan countries.