Organized Civil Society and European Integration

Early ‘neo-functionalist’ accounts of European integration (Haas 1958) stressed the transfer of civil society loyalties from the national to the European level. This raises definitional issues as to what is meant by ‘civil society’, as well as the criteria by which a transfer of loyalties can be assessed. There is an established debate on the parameters of civil society, and particularly over the question of whether business interests can be included. The European Commission’s all-embracing definition (European Commission 2001a) settles the matter empirically. A transfer of popular loyalties means more than the establishment of an interest group constituted at EU level as a means of addressing regulatory competencies, and a preference for a transnational regime to solve a cross-border issue does not imply a transfer of loyalties. Everyday activities of producer associations cannot therefore be taken to imply a transfer of loyalties. The few who participate in the work of associations in Brussels can ‘go native’, but the numbers are very limited.