On the 22 of March European civil society organisations and networks belonging to the EESC NGO Liaison Group, and the Various Interests Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held a conference under the motto "A structured civil dialogue for a citizen-friendly European Union".
The conference took place in the premises of the EESC in Brussels and followed the collective mobilisation of European civil society organisations and networks around a “Manifesto for a genuine European civil dialogue”.
The manifesto was made public on 14 April 2009 within the framework of a similar event that gathered about 200 representatives of civil society organisations at European and national level and of the main political groups in the European Parliament at the EESC in order to debate on the place and the role of civil society organisations in a more participatory democracy.
This time the objective was to put forward to the EU institutions concrete recommendations for the setting up of a structured framework for European civil dialogue.
Mr Diogo Pinto, Secretary General of the EMI, welcomed the initiative as “an important step forward in bringing  organised European civil society together and coming up with common proposals on how to organise civil dialogue in the framework established by the new Treaty of Lisbon”. He concluded that “this effort deserves to be met with concrete responses from the EU institutions and, especially, the new Commissioner in charge of Citizenship”.
Pictures: © EESC/E.Ansotte