The European Movement International (EMI) welcomes the significant progress of civil society engagement in candidate and potential candidate countries to the European Union. Especially the Turkish path of modernization, particularly since becoming candidate country to the EU in 1999, is a powerful and successful story.

Last week-end, on 11-12 February 2011, more than 300 civil society delegates, high level experts and decision makers gathered at the EMI Congress in Istanbul to discuss the theme “Civil Society Organisations challenge public authorities: From political commitment to active dialogue” and to exchange views about the role of civil society.

Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy, stated that “good governance is an essential element towards meeting the political criteria for any country to be able to join the European Union. This means that civil society has to be included in any decision-making”. He went on to add that “in a participative democracy, the role of civil society is of vital importance in providing an alternative perspective and on occasion in filling a void left by the elected authorities. Our host, the European Movement, is a prime example of such an organisation, generating change through education and dialogue with citizens and government around Europe”. He concluded that “it is the responsibility both of governments and of European institutions to ensure that the role and influence of Civil Society Organisations are strengthened and made effective. Crucially, the right to express diverging views freely, without the fear of prosecution, needs to be safeguarded in a clear and unambiguous manner”.

Pat Cox, President of the European Movement International, noted that “for a government to work it needs the consent of the governed. We see this clearly from the current events in Egypt and Tunisia. Turkey and its model of democracy seek to be a positive player throughout the region. In these terms, Turkey is an anchor of stability and the European Union is in need of such a regional partner, especially following the Jasmin-Revolution”.

Egemen Bağiş, Turkish Minister for EU Affairs and chief negotiator of Turkey in the accession talks with the European Union, expressed “that a greater and enlarged Europe can only be achieved in making the European Union a project of the people”. In this context, “the role of civil society is to provide the people with objective information and transfer their demands to the government. Today, Turkey has more than 100.000 active civil society organisations, operating in a very liberal setting, paying respect to each other and civil society has become one of the most important pillars of the Turkey EU relations”. However and despite the progress that has been made, some difficulties such as the visa liberalization remain. The minister concluded that “Turkey counts on civil society to help overcome prejudices and to solve the remaining problems”. He added that “where there is a will there is a way. Turkey has the will and the European Union can make the way”.

Speaking on behalf of the main EMI Istanbul Congress partner, the Third Sector Foundation of Turkey (TUSEV), Chairman Üstün Ergüder described that “more and more groundbreaking initiatives are to be found in the third sector of Turkey and that TUSEV will continue to play a key role in strengthening the Turkish civil society segment”. He continued to add that “this international conference will serve as a catalyst to take the recent developments in the Turkish government, the third sector cooperation and dialogue to new heights”.

Staffan Nilsson, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), highlighted that the EESC as a mirror of civil society, organisations and legislators has been promoting participatory democracy and transparency at all levels. He underlined several options of socio-economic cooperation and asked the Turkish authorities to “make of the Economic and Social Council of Turkey a fully fledged consultative body, including a majority of members from organised civil society”.

EMI President Pat Cox summed the international two-day meeting up with a reference to the “4 Ss” of the EMI Ljubljana Congress declaration from 2009 (Strategy, Structure, Sustainability and Standards for Open Government). The 2009 Ljubljana declaration established an enabling framework for the development of civil society organisations in candidate and potential candidate countries.

The Istanbul Congress declaration (full text will soon be available on the EMI website) will be composed of “4 Ps”, standing for Public Purpose, Progress, Payments and Process.

Public Purpose: Civil Society Organisations serve as facilitator, animator, driver, advocate and reformist. They are based on visions, values, convictions and a willingness to act, representing people’s needs.

Progress: Change is visible and progress has been made in Turkey and the states of the Western Balkans. New legal frameworks acknowledging and validating the right of association provide Civil Society Organisations with a legal base and better environment in which to operate.

Payments: The financial base of Civil Society Organisations comes from a diverse background of funding sources. An ongoing dialogue is needed between the donor community and the recipient community about prioritization, one that respects their mutual interests and preferences. Such dialogue should not be exclusively donor driven, whether the assistance is philanthropic or public.

Process: Civil Society in its role as advocate should be evidence led, basing perspectives on substance and facts and by constituting itself on a democratic basis can, by these means, add to its credibility.

As regards future follow up actions of the EMI, Pat Cox once again referred to the subject of visa liberalization, underlining that the EMI is committed to the accession of Turkey to the EU and suggesting to avoid double standards by extending to Turkey the visa liberalization already existing with all the other candidate and potential candidate countries. He promised that the EMI will work towards sensitizing authorities, media and other stakeholders to the visa question.

[ENDS]
Audiovisual coverage:
Watch concluding remarks of EMI President Pat Cox (Part 1-3), please here

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Editors’ Note: Since its establishment in 1949 the EMI has always put at the core of its work the relations between civil society organisations and public authorities. In this context and more recently the EMI intensified its dialogue with civil society through several congresses. One in Algiers in 2006 for the Maghreb countries and Egypt, one in Ljubljana in 2009 for the Western Balkan countries and Turkey, followed by the EMI Istanbul Congress in 2011.

For more information, please contact the secretariat: +32 (0)2 508 30 85,
email: communication(at)europeanmovement.eu