Brussels, 20/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - In the context of Franco-German dialogue, over 90 representatives of the economic, social and associative sectors met from 25 to 27 March in Berlin for a seminar on ways to ensure more active involvement on the part of citizens in the national and European democratic process. Organised at the initiative of the French Economic and Social Council, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the Berlin-Brandenburg and the Deutsch-Französiches Institut, the seminar was on the theme "Participative democracy: participation of economic, social and civil forces in decision-making policy". Discussions mainly covered social dialogue in business, recent developments and forms of the associative network, and the different methods of consulting citizens in France and Germany. Several speakers regretted that at present there is no "institutionalised interlocutor" in Germany equivalent to the French Economic and Social Council, as this would facilitate dialogue between the civil societies of the two countries and also with the EESC.
In his speech, EESC President Roger Briesch said "Franco-German entente is essential for achieving the European project as the attitudes adopted by Germany and France on the process of European construction and the future of the Community do not naturally converge". In his view, one must therefore reaffirm the importance of such an understanding between the two countries to the service of European unification, not only at the level of governments and parliaments but also between organised civil society in both countries.
This is the 3rd meeting of this kind, after that in Brussels in 2002 and Paris on 20 January 2003 (on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty). The next will be held in March 2005 in Paris.