THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS IN
PROCESSES OF POLITICAL TRANSFORMATION AND ITS
EXPRESSION IN EU-NEIGHBOURHOOD-POLICY AND
FUNDING STRUCTURES
Speaking notes Maurice Claassens, Senior Coordinator SOLIDAR
First of all let me thank the organizers for inviting me to participate at this
important meeting, which takes place at a crucial time looking at the latest policy
developments in the EU after the elections and the formation of the new
European Commission. On this element I will come back later.
What is SOLIDAR?
We are a network of 60 European organisations working together to promote social
justice and world-wide. We work together to provide social services to vulnerable
people in Europe, to empower workers and young through lifelong learning to
participate in society (both in Europe and world wide) and to support civil society and
trade unions to stand up for their economic, social and cultural rights and promote
decent work and social protection in development.
SOLIDAR manages a region-wide cooperation program in the Middle East and North
Africa region that is based on two pillars:
1. Freedom of association and access to economic, social and cultural rights
2. Promote decent work and social protection in development.
SOLIDAR itself is based in Brussels and we are constituting the advocacy office
between members and the EU institutions:
1. We advocate for policy change,
2. Enable members and their partners to have their voices heared in the
European decision making processes
3. Promote cooperation between members
4. Provide technical support and capacity building where needed.
These four elements of our mandate are important to understand what we are doing
and in particular towards the Middle East and North Africa; we as SOLIDAR do not work
in the field, we try to enable partners from the region to participate in EU decision
making processes.
For that reason - inspired by the Arab Spring - we launched in 2011 a roadmap for
cooperation in the Middle East and North Africa.
Although I will not bore you with the details of this cooperation roadmap one element is
worth mentioning, namely the monitoring of the European Neighbourhood Policy
Monitoring Process.
Started in 2013, we have worked in 2014 in partnership with Arab NGO Network for
Development, Euromed Platform and SOLIDAR members’ partners to take stock of the
EU's approach towards the region.
This process led to the publication of 7 joint country reports developed by local partners
that we submitted to the European Commission and External Action Service as part of
the ENP Progress Consultation Process.
This monitoring process indicates THREE LAYERS OF CHALLENGES that need to be
taken into consideration when speaking about prospects for cooperation. Along the lines
of our thematic: Freedom of association and access to economic, social and cultural
rights and Promoting decent work and social protection in development.
STRUCTURAL CHALLENGES IN THE REGION
When speaking about freedom of association and access to ESCRs we see that
women's rights remain under pressure. This year we have published a book on these
challenges with women rights activists from the region and they presented their findings
in the European Parliament.
Violations of freedom of expression and media freedom are persisting, and the
enabling environment for civil society and trade unions to register, organise,
access funding and initiate activities is shrinking. In this sense the current situation in
Egypt is deplorable and demands swift action, on a Brussels level civil society is
monitoring the situation closely and some rights activists joined the European
Commission in Brussels recently.
Regarding social protection and decent work. The region is still faced with the highest
relative youth unemployment rate in the world. Reforms are needed in the fields of
healthcare and education, and the universality and quality principles to access social
and public services are far from respected when talking about basic social security
guarantees. Two weeks ago SOLIDAR organized a round table in the European
parliament with representatives from the region in the European Parliament.
Moreover, the question of migrant workers is persistent. Both in terms of domestic
workers working under extremely precarious conditions and the role of the EU with its
approach to migration. Together with the trade unions from the region we will be
organizing a seminar in Brussels (in February)at the EESC to discuss the extension of
social protection to migrant workers.
Last but not least, it is also worth mentioning that the enduring Syria crisis puts
pressure on the societies in the region and in particular the access to the public sector,
in particular education and healthcare. I received recently a detailed briefing of our
members staff based in Lebanon and as a result we are preparing a mission of
Members of the European Parliament to the country to take stock of the most urgent
problems.
CHALLENGE OF PRIORITISING WITHIN THE ENP
As mentioned, following the monitoring process, SOLIDAR together with all the partners
submitted country reports to the European Commission and External Action Service on
the implementation of the ENP with several recommendations to find a rebalancing of
the priorities:
1. Ensure the full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular
the progressive realisation of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs) as
well as the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on
ECSRs
2. Promote freedom of association and a enabling environment for civil society
and social partners to work with national, regional and local authorities to design
together effective strategies that guarantee for all decent working conditions,
social security, accessible and quality healthcare and social services, as well as
accessible and quality education and lifelong learning.
3. Stronger focus on access to universal and comprehensive social protection
systems including floors (as per ILO Recommendation 202) in particular the
rapid implementation of national social protection floors containing basic social
security guarantees that ensure universal access to essential services and
income security at least at a nationally defined minimum level for all
4. Promote more inclusive socio-economic development and public investment,
based on mutual accountability between the governments in the region and its
citizens. For that reason the ENP has to continue strengthening the capacity of
civil society and enable them to act as proponents for social justice, and create
together effective employment strategies, job creation and basic social security
guarantees.
Next week there will be a consultation meeting with the European External Action
Service where SOLIDAR will propose these general recommendations.
Also, next week SOLIDAR will participate at the 2014 EUROMED SUMMIT organized
by the European Economic and Social Committee, where these recommendations and
a special report on social protection in the MENA region (in reference to the ILO
recommendation 202) will be presented.
THE CHALLENGE OF EUROPE's APPROACH
However changing policy priorities is not enough. A new narrative needs to developed.
An element that was recognized by the new Commission President Juncker in the
Mission Letter to the new Commissioner Hahn: Developing and strengthening our
neighbourhood policy to promote stability at Europe’s borders and help neighbouring
countries to develop and support stable democratic institutions and to become more
prosperous, by drawing the full benefit from their association agreements with the EU.
The European Neighbourhood Policy should appropriately distinguish between the
specific situations of different parts of Europe’s neighbourhood. I would like you to take
stock and suggest a way forward within the first twelve months of our mandate.
This mission of the new Commissioner offers a opportunity to change some of the
dynamics of the ENP, however it is not clear in which direction it might go….
It would be important to highlight that the ENP has to become even more a catalyser for
progress, supporting the countries in the region to reduce inequalities, overcome
cultural discrepancies, implement structural adjustment by ensuring automatic
stabilisers (social protection) and promote inclusive industrial development.
On 11 December, SOLIDAR is supporting ANND and CONCORD to organize a civil
society dialogue at the European Endowment for Democracy where we will try to
establish common issues and common goals between civil society from the region and
the European Union to accommodate the stock taking process.
To conclude my reflection, and thanking once again the organisers for inviting me,
we can make change possible; we have the right ingredients, we have the right
stakeholders, we have the right policy momentum. We just need to work together and
gear the ENP towards promoting policy coherence for development and an enabling
environment for civil society and trade unions to guarantee social justice: freedom of
association, decent work and social protection.