"According to the European Commission 2017 White Paper ‘The future of Europe – Reflections and scenarios for the EU27 by 2025’, the European Union (EU) acknowledges the need to becoming more democratic and that it “must move quicker to interact with citizens”, in other words, the EU must become more a kind of participatory democracy. One important element for improving democracy is the interaction of EU institutions with civil society organisations (CSOs) as the voice of citizen interests. Concomitantly, debates around participatory democracy have to be examined in the context of the EU being hit by a series of crisis – the economic and financial crisis, the migration crisis and a legitimacy crisis that shakes the foundations of the EU.
This context provided the starting point for the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie-Fellowship “Effects of Institutional Change on Participatory Democracy and the Involvement of Civil Society Organisations” (DemocInChange)“, which aimed to rethink the interface of civil society organisations (CSOs) and EU institutions as a basis for supranational participatory democracy. CSOs often represent so-called diffuse interests or marginalized societal groups. How the political participation of marginalized groups can be improved is a core question for improving democracy.
DemocInChange addressed this fundamental societal question by focusing on CSOs organised around grounds of discrimination formulated in Article 19, Lisbon Treaty; CSOs that – by definition – aim to improve citizenship rights and participation for groups often marginalized in the policy-making process. It strived to provide academic and policy-relevant answers to how changes in EU policy-making shape the options of CSOs.
So far, research often looked at either formal provisions by EU institutions or mobilization strategies by CSOs, while the formal and informal relationships between CSOs and EU institutions received less attention. DemocInChange examined the relationship of supranational civil society organisations (CSOs) among each other and towards institutions of the European Union such as the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.
The three objectives of DemocInChange summarized in brief covered innovative state-of-the-art research, an excellent training program, and mutual learning through dissemination. The research project pursued three innovative research perspectives: (1) focusing on institutional change instead of institutional stability; (2) focusing on effects of the EU policy-making structure on CSOs instead of the policy impact of CSOs; (3) focusing on the intersection of equality CSOs instead of single CSOs.
Overall, DemocInChange coined the innovative term ""equality CSOs"" for the core CSOs organised around Article 19, Lisbon Treaty, which provides the legal ground for combating discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. It shows that CSOs are quite flexible in adapting to new situations and developed over time well-functioning networks that provide support in times of crisis.
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