Undiscovered Avenues? CSOs as Agents of Europeanization

1. Undiscovered Avenues? CSOs as Agents of Europeanization Eiki Berg and Kristian L. Nielsen

2. 1. Pre-existing knowledge • EU as a soft power has capabilities to spread out its influence • Europeanization refers to the diffusion of rules/procedures/policies/norms • CSOs are acting as agents in Europeanization process • Procedural and institutional obstacles paralyze activities where civil society can help effecting

3. 2. How do we know that we know what we know? • Theoretical framing • Complex interdependence (Keohane & Nye 1977) • Normative power (Manners 2002) • Soft power (Nye 2004) • Past empirical findings about CSO activities • Intermediary position • Policy shaping • Policy implementation

4. 3. Normative Power Europe discourse • EU is making its external relations informed by, and conditional on, a catalogue of n o r m s (Manners 2002) • Europeans can make the world more c i v i l i s e d place if they have the confidence and capacity to export their ideas (Rifkin 2004) • EU normative power resides in a delicate nexus of a t t r a c t i o n, c o e r c i o n and l e g i t i m a c y (Leonard 2005)

5. 4. Soft Power discourse • Emphasis on attraction and persuasion rather than coercion • ”The ability to get others to want the same as you want” (Nye 2004) • Sources of soft power • Culture • Norms and values • Policies

6. 5. Practicing European Neighbourhood Policy • ENP entails a process of Europeanization • ENP is built around action plans • ENP applies conditionality tests ...thus exporting the values, drawing the targeted countries closer and achieving a measure of integration without membership...

7. 6. Difficulties to make two ends (discourse and practise) meet • Civil society is weak in the neighbourhood • CSOs depend on foreign aid • CSOs have low reputation in the society • EU suffers from the credibility gap • EU is a victim of its own bureaucracy

8. 7. Experiences from the field • CSOs can provide an alternative avenue for cooperation • CSOs are flexible, innovative and able to react to local issues fast and effectively • CSOs are excluded from the policy-making • CSOs are not able to cope with EU financial conditions • CSOs’ influence on local development is not visible • CSOs play a limited role in empowering citizens

9. 8. Policy recommendations • Efforts towards democratisation should be pursued for its own sake and not as being benefit of the EU • EU should exploit convergence of its own interests between the objectives of the CSOs to achieve the maximum results • EU should find a balance between attraction, coercion and legitimacy in order to overcome credibility gap • Technical areas of cooperation, like environment or economic development, offer the best short-term possibilities for achieving an impact

10. The EU should not engage itself to the civil society developments more than simply being a facilitator and funding provider • The EU should facilitate a formation of larger network of NGOs through which ideas, experiences and knowledge could transferred to interested parties • The EU should reform the technical procedures and introduce a certain amount of flexibility in case it wants to play the role of normative power