ABSTRACT
Over the last few years, there has been renewed interest in the emergence of a European public sphere. This interest can be explained by three different factors (De Schutter 2002). The first has to do with the emergence of a European citizenship that is being defined and codified through various charters and texts, for example an official report (‘White Paper’) on governance, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Maastricht Treaty and, not least, the European Constitutional Treaty produced by the Convention on the Future of Europe. Some of these texts were drafted by reflection groups that involved representatives of European civil society. The symbolic as well as very concrete involvement of civil society in the drafting of these important documents shows that there is a genuine will to improve citizens’ involvement in institutional processes at the European level. Second, there is a general dissatisfaction with the Europeanization process, which appears to lack democratic legitimacy. In this respect, the development of a European public sphere seems to offer an opportunity to develop a channel and framework for criticism, debate and protest in relation to Europeanization. Third, there has been a clear strengthening of protest movements at the European level, which has contributed to the development of a trans-national network of civil society organizations, even though forms of mobilization are highly diverse. Mobilization has placed the issue of the mode of citizen intervention in policy-making at the forefront of debate. Indeed, and as argued in Chapter 1, if we want to enquire whether or not a European public sphere is emerging, we have to analyse on the one hand the extent to which institutional structures and practices at the European level provide opportunities for such groups to participate in the setting and elaboration of policy agendas, and on the other hand the kinds of mobilization from below that are emerging, and how they use the European level to bring forward specific concerns. The various obstacles and difficulties these movements face on the European political stage, as well as the opportunities that are open to them when they wish to express their claims and participate in policy-making, are good indicators of the degree of openness of this European public sphere.
