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

strengthening the legitimacy of dutch eu policy: conclusions and recommendations
This requires that policy makers open up the system to (new) civil society
organisations that are not part of the sectoral policy columns. These
organisations may thus adopt critical attitudes, generate new perspectives
and have better chances to involve the media, and thus keep the public
authorities ‘on their toes’. Policy makers would therefore need to assess
the contribution of these organisations not only on the grounds of their
expertise, their problem-solving ability and their output legitimacy, but
also on the grounds of the variety of interests and positions represented.
For their part, civil society organisations may address the problem of
fragmentation by pooling their strengths and creating broad coalitions
or forums. Their contribution to the national decision-making process
could in time be broadened through participation in policy consultations
– including via the Internet – hearings or focus groups with a low access
threshold. The open character of such instruments could also (in contrast
to the closed chambers of typical ‘polder institutions’) strengthen the
public ability to government accountable vis-à-vis the community.
In the longer term, civil society could thus contribute to the legitimisation
of eu policy in the Netherlands, provided that the policy makers are willing.
The wrr recommends that the current administrative relationship
with civil society be opened up to other organisations, initiatives and coalitions
beyond the conventional civil society organisations.
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7.5 conclusion: over to politicians and policy
makers
The negative referendum result prompted the Dutch government to seek
the advice of the wrr on the question of whether (and how), through
improved embedding of European decision making in the Dutch political
process, politicising European issues could contribute to bridging the
perceived gap between citizens and the eu policies of the political and
bureaucratic elites. The government also asked the wrr to investigate how
the social embedding of Europe in the Netherlands could be promoted. In
that regard, the government, among other things, asked for more insight
into the structural and cultural variables and constants that are relevant to
this embedding process; and how the different actors in the Netherlands
can strengthen their European role and increase their level of social
commitment to Europe.
The wrr has extended the perspective of the government’s request by
studying whether this gap is indicative of a deeper problem concerning the
legitimisation of eu policy in the Netherlands. In itself, the existence of a
certain distance between citizens and Europe is not problematic, as long as