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

civil society
it is also striking that far more reactions came from countries such as
Belgium (74), France (67), Germany (45) and Austria (25) than from the
Netherlands (4). 5
This small number of reactions was all the more striking in light of the
increased attention being paid to the purely national aspects of the application
of market regulations to public services. That attention also extended
to Services of General Interest and their distinction from Services of
General Economic Interest. Sectors such as telecommunications, transport
and energy, as well as social housing and health care occupied a central
position here. In 2002, seven private non-profit sector organisations in
the fields of care, education and housing even took the initiative of joining
forces on the issue of corporate social responsibility in the Network for
Future Corporate Social Responsibility (ntmo). The Social and Economic
Council of the Netherlands (ser) (2005), the wrr (2004) and the research
institute of the Christian Democratic party (cda) (2005) all contributed
to this debate as well. It was essential then to link the European debate
directly to the national debate (as was the case in Germany), but this did
not happen in the Netherlands.
Van den Berg and Brandsen (2007) attribute this lack of response to a lack
of a common identity in Dutch civil society. Dutch civil society, particularly
when compared to countries like France, Germany and the United
Kingdom, can hardly be portrayed as organised at a central level. The policy
domain in which civil society organisations operate is much more important
in this regard.
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Organisations are more likely to identify with related organisations and
public institutions within the same sector (such as health care or housing)
than with civil society as such. Another explanation for civil society’s lack
of involvement lies with the government, however, because the Ministry
of Economic Affairs was responsible for consulting with civil society
organisations, whereas, in reality, this ministry has traditionally maintained
few links with many of the civil society organisations that are
concerned with public services. Instead, these organisations maintain
direct links with the Ministry of Housing, Welfare and Sport, for example,
or the Ministry of Social Affairs. Single vertical relationships between civil
society organisations and a single ministry can thus also be an obstacle.
Both the sectoral segmentation of civil society itself and the associated
segmentation within central government were barriers.
The situation in relation to the Green Paper on Services of General
Economic Interest illustrates that if eu policy does not fit into various