Civil Society Participation in EU Social Policy: A More Social EU with the Civil Society? A Case Study on the European Pillar of Social Rights

Abstract: Traditionally, the role of the civil society in the EU policy-making has been week in comparison with the business associations and trade unions who are the social partners of the EU. However, this weakness forced the civil society to unite under a common network, which became to be known as Social Platform. Recently, their visibility became even stronger when the crisis hit the EU and consequently destroyed the weak welfare states first. The social consequences even worsened when the EU applied austerity measures to those countries. All these led to the criticism of the civil society members who were active in the social sector, under the network of the Social Platform. However, the recent initiative from the Commission grew new hopes for a stronger social Europe. Therefore, this study seeks to analyze how the Social Platform and one of its member, Solidar, mobilized during the Pillar development. In that perspective, by employing the theories of the social movement approach, political opportunity structure and framing process will enable us to explain the mobilization and the success of the Social Platform and the Solidar. The findings also show show that thanks to favorable political opportunities and framing, civil society could actively mobilize and had an impact on the Pillar.