Open Stakeholder Consultations at the European Level-Voice of the Citizens?

The European Commission's open consultations of stakeholders are a central mechanism of the attempt to practice participatory governance at the European level and to open the political process to contributions from the societal sphere. This paper analyses the current practice of open consultati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European law journal : review of European law in context Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 257 - 280
Main Author: Marxsen, Christian
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2015
Subjects:
21st century
Business enterprises
Citizen Participation
Citizens
Consultations
Europe
European Commission
European Union
Governance
Implementation
Interest Groups
Law
Legitimacy
Nonprofit organizations
Participation
Political Participation
Political systems
Private sector
Stakeholders
Studies
Treaties
EUROPEAN UNION
Europe
ISSN:1351-5993, 1468-0386, 1468-0386
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The European Commission's open consultations of stakeholders are a central mechanism of the attempt to practice participatory governance at the European level and to open the political process to contributions from the societal sphere. This paper analyses the current practice of open consultations as one important operationalisation of participatory governance and as an implementation of Article 11 of the Treaty of the European Union (TEU). It asks whether consultations can be a means to give voice to the citizens and to increase the legitimacy of European institutions. The paper presents an empirical analysis of the field of participants in the consultations. A main finding is that business and industry organisations dominate the consultative process while the participation of citizens and not-for-profit organisations is generally weak. The paper explores to which extent the consultations can, considering the empirical findings, be seen as a suitable way for direct or representative citizen participation.
Bibliography:istex:81B9626E9DF452A9B29052499E40B10B99B424AF
ark:/67375/WNG-JZVZ262J-B
ArticleID:EULJ12084
Informit, Melbourne (Vic)
European Law Journal, Vol. 21, No. 2, Apr 2015, 257-280
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 14
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1351-5993
1468-0386
1468-0386
DOI:10.1111/eulj.12084