Europe’s internal market calls on civil society

Could this be the sign that things are changing? This is the question on the tip of European civil society leaders’ tounges this week after the EU internal market commissioner announced that “more needs to be done to enhance the active participation of civil society organisations in Internal Market policymaking in order to fully achieve a fair balance on non-industry stakeholders’ representation in our consultation process”.

Yes. The single market. A bastion hitherto untouched by civil society but that may well be within its reach thanks to the Single Market Act, presented by Barnier last week. The Act contains fifty measures that will reform the internal market and offer more space to “a more competitive social economy”. The Act will be open to public consultation until February 28 2012 and will form the basis of 2012 financial regulation

The crisis has made the European single market increasingly unpopular, and its financial institutions have been under continuous fire from pro-transparency NGOs due to the number of bankers dominating the very groups that advise on financial regulation. According to the European magazien EUobserver, 11 out of the 25 expert groups advising on financial regulation issues all have a majority of representatives from the banking lobby and the Payment Systems Market Expert Group maintains 43 representatives from business and just two from government, one from academia and one trade unionist.

“We have seen the disasters caused by the liberal model adopted in the past 15 years … perhaps the time has come to realign the model”, said Barnier. His vision for a single market strategy based on the social economy includes three main principles: social enterprise, legistlative instruments and a redefinition of the social responsibility of corporations.