Fleshing out the Lisbon Treaty’s provisions on participatory democracy

The Centre

At lunchtime I went to The Centre (‘Brussels’ first think do tank’) to deliver a UACES (University Association for Contemporary European Studies) lecture with the title ‘Fleshing out the Lisbon Treaty’s provisions on participatory democracy.’ The seminar, expertly chaired by a young German official from the Committee of the Regions (and fellow European University Institute doctorate holder), Justus Schonlau, was surprisingly well attended. You can ‘read’ my powerpoint presentation on my EESC webpages here. The good attendance has encouraged me to think about writing up the presentation into an article. If I did so, the title would be ‘an inconvenient question’ since, in my opinion, we don’t need the Lisbon Treaty to implement its provisions on a structured dialogue with civil society. So why aren’t we already doing it? Or are we? Whoops; that’s two inconvenient questions.