 Civil society and European administration systemPanagiotis Grigoriou No 301, Apas Papers from Academic Public Administration Studies Archive - APAS Abstract: The advent of the White Paper on European Governance in the EU legal policy environment has definitely added a brand new legitimate procedure to the complex process of European integration. This refers to the direct dialogue between the European institutions and the structures of civil society. According to the European Commission, civil society should play an important role in the development of the EU policies. Institutions and Member States should enhance their political will in order to improve consultation with the stakeholders on EU policies. To this end, the European Parliament plays a key part, given its role as representative actor of the society. The Lisbon Treaty strengthens the democratic equality among the participants in the European integration process by introducing as well the meaning of the European Citizens' Initiative. Article 11 on participatory democracy provides that, with the initiative of at least one million EU citizens, from a significant number of Member States, the Commission may be invited to submit appropriate proposals on matters were citizens considered that a legal act from the Union was necessary. Through this latest revision, the registered Union Treaty makes a new constitutional framework respectable, particularly through the establishment of multileveled governance. This institutional development suggests, on the one hand, a more practical involvement in the decision making bodies, such as the Committee of the Regions that used to have a supporting role, and on the other hand, a more practical respect for the principles, such as subsidiary, which contribute substantially to the decentralization at a community level. Initially this multileveled governance reflects the necessity of running the partnership as a focal point of the community (intergovernmental) method and the starting process of European integration. In addition, however, it contributes to the cultivation of a common public sentiment in the community governance framework, which can be expressed either through European solidarity or European citizenship, since the direct link between these processes is social and economic development. The above considerations allow the case of European citizenship to be a central issue in the creation a common European future. Citizenship is considered, not randomly, as a crucial tool for the constitution of a common political consciousness and also of a European identity that is founded on the community of rights and values, between different perceptions and interpretations of the strategies and modalities that the political actors invoke. (Fritz Scharpf : 1999, 16επ. ). Consequently, the uptake of this option indicates the true scope of a joint intention towards a bi-national based community, which does not correspond in any way to the recognition of a community population, state or even nation. Keywords: Civil society; European administration system (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nsu:apasro:301 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Apas Papers from Academic Public Administration Studies Archive - APAS Contact information at EDIRC. |
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