Event report

Speech to the actors in international solidarity Citizens‘consultation organised by Coordination SUD and RADSI Nouvelle Aquitaine Born from the desire to involve international solidarity actors in European issues of international solidarity, to seize the opportunity offered by the Conference on the Future of Europe, and a series of activities organised by Coordination SUD around the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Coordination SUD and RADSI Nouvelle Aquitaine organised on 15 December 2021 a citizens’ consultation with 39 representatives of civil society organisations, local authorities, the Ministry of Europe and foreign affairs, and the European Parliament. This note summarises the exchanges and contributions that took place during the day of 15 December 2021. The balance of the European institutions towards more open and participatory governance vis-à-vis civil society has been identified as a heavy trend, favourable to civil society, but not without limits. Civil society representatives highlighted several limitations to this process of democratisation of European policies, in particular development policies. Indeed, the involvement of civil society organisations (CSOs) is sometimes limited to a front-up process, without any real consideration of their contributions and suggestions. The organisations consulted by the institutions also raise the question of their representative legitimacy, particularly with regard to the diversity of CSOs of international solidarity. These factors partly explain the difficulty of policies and funding in meeting the needs and expectations of the field. While this governance is effective in some cases, it can also be undermined by the lack of coherence between national and European public policies, which sometimes come to compete or even negatively affect each other. This trend towards the inclusion of civil society in the European political process must, in order to achieve its promise, build on existing national consultation mechanisms, recognise the diversity of CSOs, and promote equal inclusion of European and African CSOs. The promotion of the concept of equal partnership inevitably calls on CSOs to question their partnership practices, but also their language and action more broadly in EU partner countries, and in particular in African countries. European institutions and CSOs must work together, recognising the role of all African civil society organisations (including feminist and youth organisations). This recognition must be effective and involve better access to European funding in order to foster the initiatives of local organisations. This recognition implies a reflection on the language and discourse used by the associative and institutional sector, already at work but which would benefit from intensifying and becoming more widespread. As often, these exchanges recalled the centrality of the issue of funding to promote CSO involvement and the right of initiative, to promote equal international partnerships. This funding, if not redesigned and made more accessible, will continue to favour a minority of CSOs and exclude smaller organisations, local organisations and non-European organisations. To this end, it is possible to strengthen the skills of CSOs (training, counselling, coaching) in order to improve their chances of obtaining a public grant, but it must also be followed by an opening up of funding and the promotion of the right of initiative, making it possible to better respond to the diversity of structures and needs. Questioning these issues of funding, governance and participation of CSOs has led participants, including many organisations involved in citizenship education and international solidarity (ECSI) activities to study the importance of CSOs in European policies and public funding. While it seems well understood at French level, it remains unclear at European level and difficult to grasp by European decision-makers. However, ECSI is an important dimension of solidarity actions, benefiting from a strong territorial anchor and a good knowledge of citizens. Communicate more about the impact of ECSI projects, improve funding for such projects by facilitating their accessibility to small structures and through calls for longer-term projects (2 to 3 years). Local and local authorities and elected representatives need to be made aware of such initiatives in order to promote their establishment and local development. These various contributions were recorded on the platform of the Conference on the Future of Europe. They feed into previous contributions and will be taken into account in the formulation of conclusions and guidelines on the future of Europe by spring 2022. It will then be up to the Parliament, the Council and the Commission, the three main institutions of the European Union, to follow up on these guidelines.