Civil Society and EU accession – Moving beyond the “box-ticking” practice
Publisher: Institute for Democracy and Mediation, Albania
Executive Summary: The process of transforming “civil society involvement in decision making and EU accession” into a meaningful mechanism that serves to improve capacities of societal actors and citizen driven reforms does not seem yet to reflect on “past mistakes”. Efforts must look deeper in the local context and move beyond sporadic actions and emergency solutions that fail to deliver on sustainability.
An adequate framework to achieve this implies that key stakeholders – EU, WB political players and non- state actors – must approach as partners the political process of EU accession. Brussels and political actors in the region must go beyond the understanding of civil society as a recipient or a target group of their efforts. Non state actors must prove their case as a resourceful stakeholder in the consultations on EU accession reforms through greater focus on constituency building, capacity and intra-sectoral development.
Download: Civil Society and EU accession – Moving beyond the “box-ticking” practice
