Rediscovering Europe in the Netherlands - St Antony's College ...

ediscovering europe in the netherlands
organisation of civil society in Brussels has limited significance in the light
of the central theme of this report because its impact on the national decision
making process is limited. Research has shown that civil society
organisations at the European level are well organised and deeply embedded
into the Brussels decision making process, but their Dutch counterparts
play only a limited role in the national decision making process with
regard to Dutch eu policy (Van den Berg and Brandsen 2007). The involvement
of Dutch interest groups with eu policy is minimal, so that key functions
such as encouraging participation and placing important European
issues on the agenda are fulfilled to a limited extent only. The contribution
by civil society organisations in the eu policy legitimisation process in the
Netherlands is therefore limited.
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Moreover, the Dutch system of representing interests has traditionally
been characterised as corporatist in nature (see section 5.2.1), and this has
led to major differences in the degree to which ‘Europe’ is embedded in the
different organisations. This creates problems when it comes to a level
playing field for interest groups that want to exercise influence at both the
national and European levels. 1 In the first place, there are major differences
in the extent to which civil society organisations concern themselves with
European policy issues. Van den Berg and Brandsen (2007), for example,
have concluded that the European trade union federations are mainly
concerned with national issues. By contrast, the Confederation of Netherlands
Industry and Employers, vno-ncw, and the Dutch Federation of
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, mkb Nederland, in their role as
representatives of industry, are much more keyed into European issues
such as market access, trade policy and competitive relations. This is less
clearly the case when it comes to their other role, as employers’ organisations.
The degree of involvement with ‘Europe’ thus greatly depends on
the extent to which the eu is involved in the specific sector in question.
This is also true for organisations involved in areas such as human rights
and development as well as environmental organisations. Moreover, even
within these organisations, Europe is a separate specialism, rather than a
dimension of their normal activities.
Partly because of these constraints (which are dealt with in more detail in
section 5.2), the potential for Dutch civil society organisations to make a
real contribution to the legitimisation of Dutch eu policy appears limited.
This chapter will examine the possibilities and opportunities for overcoming
those constraints, so that civil society can contribute to the legitimisation
of eu policy in the Netherlands in relation to the following three
aspects: