Originally published 8 March 2016. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
Hands up everyone.
Who among you has EVER responded to a European Union consultation?
As the Referendum debate rages, a familiar, oft-repeated allegation is that European institutions remain remote and opaque. Brussels has long been characterised – at least by large chunks of the UK media - as an overbearing bureaucratic machine, unresponsive to any reasonable argument. In contrast, supporters of the EU insist that it is much more consultative than is generally acknowledged. What is the truth?
It is an interesting exercise just to look at the subjects upon which the EU is out to consultation right now. Even somewhat paraphrased, it is quite a list, and we would surmise that very few, if any, have received a smidgeon of coverage in the British media – and that includes the less-eurosceptic newspapers as well as our ‘impartial’ broadcasters. By any standard it includes a large number of issues that rank among the most visible and challenging problems facing the world.
Now the advocates of a British exit from the EU would probably glance at these 31 items and declare that most of them were an infringement of our sovereignty. Why should there be a Pan-European certification of train drivers? Do we really need a Pan-European Disability strategy, or a Drugs strategy? Migrant Smuggling? Fisheries? Noise? Clearly some people would prefer these to be purely national decisions!
But allowing that these issues are - at the moment at least- considered at a European level, the next allegation to consider is that these are all conjured up by unaccountable bureaucrats and that we have no means of influencing them. Hence the suggestion that they are imposed upon an unwilling United Kingdom. The question then is whether this perception arises because many are unaware of the consultations. Or do they just lack confidence in the EU consultative process?
The truth is that the EU now has a pretty comprehensive set of Consultation Guidelines. Indeed, there is a case for saying they are of more practical use than the ‘Principles’ recently revised by the Cabinet Office.
Where Governments – and supra-Governmental bodies like the EU - struggle is in the sheer scale of the consultative challenge. It is one thing for Milton Keynes Council to hold dialogues with well-known community groups and the 200,000 or so residents of the town. It is quite another to contemplate capturing the views of interested responders in a community of 507 million. How on earth can they do it?
Which brings us to Transparency. On 1st March, Brussels launched its consultation on its ‘Transparency Register’ – the EU’s attempt to regulate lobbying. One of the ideas being considered is that organisations that register receive alerts and preferred access to EU consultations. It might help solve the widespread ignorance about EU consultations, but is unlikely to have much impact unless the current figure of 9,000 registrants grows nearer to the 100,000 that probably strive for lobbying influence in the EU.
This particular consultation highlights the dilemma facing those who have to prepare them – a dilemma that faces many organisations. How to formulate a sensible consultation on a technical subject where the language and the issues are best understood by a specific audience of stakeholders, whilst also making it accessible to the general public. Given this problem, many of the questions are well-structured and better than many we see day-by-day in the UK.
Whatever happens in the June Referendum, the growing pressure on the EU to reform itself and address perceptions of there being a ‘democratic deficit’ will oblige it to improve still further the quality and practice of public consultations. We might be wise to watch closely what happens.
Trigger points
- How much awareness is there in your organisation of the range and relevance of EU consultations?
- Will you be significantly affected by issues currently being consulted upon?
- The list of current EU consultations can be found on http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/stakeholder-consultation/index_en.htm
- For information on the EU standards see http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/guidelines/ug_chap7_en.htm
- The Transparency consultation is an excellent example of an EU consultation and warrants some study. It can be found on https://t.co/FGzJ5BiRPh
- We need to declare an interest. The Institute was asked by the European Commission, who are also members of ours, to contribute to their consultation on their ‘Stakeholder Consultation Guidelines’
This is the 292nd Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement