NGOs denounce obscure procedures when dealing with public institutions 

Representatives of civic organisation have highlighted a "gap between official and effective criteria" applied to NGOs when selected to participate in decision-making processes at EU and national level. 

At a conference hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 16 September, the representatives of 32 NGOs from the 25 EU member states, candidate countries and Turkey have presented a series of studies on how NGOs interact with public institutions in Europe and Latin America. 

The studies, realised by Active Citizenship Network (ACN) include a survey on the way public authorities recognise and promote the role of citizens organisations as actors in policy-making. 

When analysing the criteria for the selection of NGOs as actors in the decision-making process, the survey found that "arbitrariness and partisan spirit" were "common". "The influence of hidden criteria" such as informal relations with public officials and the "lack of publicity and transparency" were also commonplace. 

ACN points to the "perverse effect" of the situation which has brought about a "marked syndrome of distrust" between NGOs and public institutions. The situation, ACN adds, is both damaging to citizens organisations and risky for institutions because NGOs are "a vital resource for future governance". 

It thus proposes seven principles to reform the representation criteria of civic NGOs. 

• Right to selection for all citizens organisations in the policy making process on an equal basis and without arbitrary discrimination
• Publicly stated rules and criteria applied in a fully transparent way
• General and sectoral criteria
• Flexibility of criteria to take account of situation and nature of organisations
• Priority to procedures
• Procedures must be accompanied by public policies aimed at creating the conditions for access of NGOs to the selection process
• Involve civic NGOs in the definition of criteria

Speaking to EurActiv,  Charlotte Roffiaen, director of Active Citizenship Network (ACN) said it is "fundamental" that civil society organisations are associated to the establishment of criteria. "It is excluded that an institution [alone] decides on these criteria", which she believes is what the the Economic and Social Committee "is trying to do". "We cannot approve a unilateral approach," Roffiaen said. "The EESC often considers itself as representative of all civil society, which is a bit difficult to swallow, especially when you know its composition".

Tristan McDonald from the  European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)  said it was "inaccurate to imply that the EESC has the ambition to define alone the representation criteria of NGOs". The EESC, he explained, "has indeed proposed a list of criteria aiming at evaluating the representativeness of civil society organisations but it has expressed at the same time its intention to debate with these organisations as well as with other European institutions". Mc Donald added that the EESC does not pretend to represent alone all of civil society. "Even if the representativeness of EESC members is undeniable, we are fully conscious that the Committee only partially reflects the diversity and evolution of what the term 'organised civil society' covers". However, he stated that "by its composition and the functions conferred to it by the treaties, the EESC is, at European level, the institutional representative of organised civil society and its privileged intermediary with the institutions".