Research Papers

At the height of the political and academic debate on the question in how far the participation of civil society organisations can solve the problems of democratic legitimacy in European and Global governance, the European Commission introduced, in 2008, the European Transparency Initiative (ETI) as new and central means to regulate its relation to various types of non-state actors. But which path does the ETI follow? Does it pursue the way of strengthening democratic participation, or does it rather follows an instrumental understanding of participation as consultation? This paper takes stock of the empirical developments of the ETI, contextualizes it in the context of participatory governance in the EU and normatively reflects upon its impact on the legitimacy of EU governance. The paper claims that unless the EU’s participatory regime does not move into a direction of a regulated model of participation, it will fail to effectively and legitimately improve lobbying in EU governance.