Non-Governmental Organizations As An Important Instrument Inensuring Stability In European Union

Distrust crisisin the European Union

To date, the distrust crisis is confirmed by the remarkably high electoral scores of Europhobic or sovereignist parties. This distrust started because the European Union does not manage to face the major challenges confronted by Europeans.

Citizens doubt its capacity to take up the great internal and external challenges. This distrust is tangible, on the one side in the Eurobarometer surveys and, on the other side, in the electoral scores of populist parties. The Eurobarometer Special Surveys estimate the trust level of European Union's citizens.

The average, the global number, is uneven. This is due to the fact that, precisely, trust level in the Europe is best maintained in recent Member States. It is surprising. It is also the case in Member States that have not yet adopted the single currency, the euro (Doyle, 2017).

There were elections in the European Parliament, in May 2019. An increasing number of states massively vote for parties that have the following characteristics: so-called protest parties, they often have unfavourable opinions about Islam, very unfavourable opinions about migrants and the European construction. We can also notice that the score of these parties varies from an election to the other. Thus, in Italy, the Netherlands and Finland, they dropped between the last legislative elections in their country and European elections in 2019. However, in other countries, the score of these protest parties skyrocketed in Denmark, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Sweden. Therefore, this distrust can be considered to be equivalent for ancient and recent Member States.

This distrust towards European Union manifests itself through elections and the lasting inclusion of populist parties in politics. The far-right populist parties, often divided among themselves and in minority, do not govern. Results demonstrate that this is not necessarily true. Their influence on governing parties increases. This tendency is perfectly illustrated by the United Kingdomand Hungary. A few far-left parties represented in the European Parliament went from a protest and sovereignist agenda to an agenda maintaining a few populist elements but is, above all, an alternative anti-austerity agenda.

These internal challenges are social andeconomic. Since 2009, the European economy stopped increasing. Unemployment rates have never been this high since the Great Depression during the interwar years. This may be the reason why states that are burdened with debt have great difficulties supporting their populations.

This very damaged social and economic situation is even more worrisome since Europe faces very complicated external challenges. European citizens cast doubt on the ability of the European Union in facing extreme social and economic issues.

It is by now generally accepted that there is also a problem of migration in the European Union as it exacerbates the internal crisis. According to Rais Mehdi, for European leaders, readmission agreements derive their legitimacy from the fact that they are specifically designed to facilitate returns of undesirable aliens to their country of origin in accord with the principle of state sovereignty.

It is interesting to note that, European readmission policy does not distinguish between aliens who are in an unlawful situation whose legal position should be protected, and those who are not (Mehdi, 2016).

Another important point of research is also increasing heterogeneity among European countries which affects stability in Europe. Europe has a handful of large countries: Great Britain Germany, France, Italy, Spain. Since the crumbling of the Iron Curtain, and after the ascension of the country into the European Union, Poland may have entered this category in the general consciousness. Whether Russia should be counted as an integral part of Europe remains an ambiguous matter. These countries have populations of some forty million or upward. In contrast, a considerable number of other European countries are understood to be “small.” These are small and difficult to observe. The largest of the small, the Netherlands, has a population of some seventeen million.

As has been previously reported in the book “Small Countries. Structures and Sensibilities” by Ulf Hannerz and Andre Gingrich, in Europe the contrast between “small” and “large” countries has been a significant factor for a very long time and has hardly become less so during the much shorter history of the European Union. The results confirm that the differences between “small” and “large” countries may be characteristic of the internal crisis in Europe (Hannerz & Gingrich, 2017).

Non-governmental organizations can provide valuable input

With their expertise and representative member base, non-governmental organizations can provide valuable input and help legitimize the decision-making process within the European Union. Non-governmental organizations have played an important role in developing European policy. Since the early 1990's, they have built coalitions with national and regional governments, industry, other interest groups and members of the European parliament as well as the European Commission. Lobbying generally favours big non-governmental organizations with enough resources to provide robust facts and scientifically based evidence in their advocacy work. It is important to highlight the fact that the European Union consults with non-governmental organizations in different ways, for instance through green papers (discussion papers), white papers (official proposals), communications, advisory committees and ad hoc consultations. As has been previously reported, the European commission has allocated more than 1 billion Euros annually in support of non-governmental organization projects and there are over 15,000 lobbyists and 2, 600 special interest groups in Brussels.

In the study, we intentionally draw attention to the practical component of non-governmental organizations. According to Mascarenhas (2017), airlines provided free travel for relief workers. The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo donated thousands of cases of bottled water. Drug makers and medical companies sent shipments of medical supplies and cash donations. Statistics revealed, that Pfizer announced plans to donate $10 million to local and international relief organizations, including Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee, as well as about $25 million of its health-care products to the relief efforts. Bristol-Myers Squibb sent antibiotics and other supplies, in addition to a $100,000 donation through the American Red Cross. Abbott Laboratories’ charitable fund donated supplies, including nutritional supplements, valued at $2 million, as well as an additional $2 million in cash. Merck made a cash donation of $250,000. Johnson & Johnson contributed $2 million in cash and matched employee donations to the Red Cross. General Electric pledged $1 million to the Red Cross’s International Response Fund and $100,000 to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) (Wall Street Journal News Roundup 2004). Similar donations poured in from other corporate sectors and governments from around the world, and, within six months, official aid and private donations raised over $13 billion for the victims of natural disaster (Mascarenhas, 2017).

Own observations and special studies in this regard have shown there is no dearth of non-government actors working on consolidating society but, as with most organizations, they also suffer from a number of deficiencies. However, this can also lead to conflicts, and collaboration is particularly difficult among non-governmental organizations pursuing very different campaigning styles and strategies, something which can actually undermine the progress of the campaigning. It is notable that the plethora of non-governmental organizations often leads to unhealthy competition among them, overlapping and duplication of services, and waste.

Nevertheless, there are many reasons for the growth of non-governmental organizations. According to Manuel Castells, four distinct political crises confront democratic states:- Crisis of efficiency: problems cannot be sufficiently managed by governments of European countries, regulation economics; - Crisis ofidentity; - Crisis of legitimacy; - Crisis of equity (Castells, 2005).

What deserves special attention here understanding that is the European Union, as an intergovernmental organization, provides support to non-governmental organizations. In addition to the desire of individual European members to support non-governmental organizations, what has become the European Union has had its own foreign assistance program since the 1960s and began funding non-governmental organizations since the mid-1970s. Other Western democratic states are also an important sponsor of non-governmental organizations. Alternatively, it could simply mean that industrial democratic states have especially funded non-governmental organizations involved in international development and humanitarian crises (Kim & Reimann, 2006).

The research results of Simone Rensch have been very useful to us. Further reason for the proliferation of non-governmental organizations is private foundations. The results show that many private foundations fund non-governmental organizations involved in international development, service, and advocacy. non-governmental organizations based in the United Kingdom could lose out on up to €357m every year from the European Union, according to 2016 figures from Bond, a United Kingdom network for organisations working in international development, if there was a ‘hard Brexit’ (Rensch, 2018).

It is appropriate to pay attention to the list of American private foundations which have contributed billions of dollars to non-governmental organizations: Alton Jones Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Mott Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Gates Foundation, Global Fund for Women, Kellogg Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Packard Foundation.

Focused consideration of the review of the various aspects of theory and practice of non-governmental organizations activities is contained in proceedings Sheila Carapico where a scientific justification is given as an interesting list of factors which have contributed to the dramatic growth of non-governmental organizations. This aspect is be dealt with in more detail in Beyer (2007a).

These factors include such as:

• Political policies. That is the decisions by governments to suppress opposition political unions, parties, cooperatives and other channels of civic engagement; the greater space given to charitable, religious, and other associations.

Social trends. That is the "effects of urbanization and education, on the one hand, and anomie and detachment from 'roots,' on the other; the intellectual and political aspirations of millions of university graduates; the even higher ambitions of many hundreds of holders of European or American degrees; and the cosmopolitanization of human rights, particularly among urban elites, environmental and feminist concerns.

• Economics. In the past, international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and other kinds of donors provided grants and loans in support of development programs only to national governments.

• Politics. Peace-process related funding from the United States, Canada, Europe and other donors is now more available to support civic engagement and education activities in the Middle East, support of democratization efforts.

• Speaking about the role of non-governmental global organizations in stabilizing the situation in Europe Cornelia Beyer talks about the functions of non-governmental organizations. She states that an important force of non-governmental organizations is their "decisive force" (Beyer, 2007b).

In many cases, non-governmental Organizations seem to have more decision-making power than political influence, because they are more effective in influencing the formation of goals and monitoring, and less significant for actual decision-making, which remains in the competence of state entities. Forms of exertion of decisional power are participation, monitoring, advocacy, lobbying and protest (Beyer, 2007a).

In the opinion of Shamima Ahmed, David Potter non-state actors such as non-governmental organizations participate in public education and Consciousness Raising. Non-governmental organizations become involved in outreach activities in order to educate local, national, or international governments and organizations. For instance, Greenpeace tries to bring to the attention of people environmental abuse by disseminating information through television, radio, and newspaper stories (Ahmed & Potter, 2013).

Non-governmental organizations functions

However, it should be emphasized that one of the important functions of non-governmental organizations influencing stability in Europe is the monitoring of transnational Actors.

Non-governmental organizations monitor the behaviour of governments as well as the behaviour of multinational corporations and intergovernmental organizations in an attempt to ensure that states and organizations comply with laws and international treaties.

In addition, the activities of non-governmental organizations promote transparency in the work of the International Monetary Fund the World Bank.

Consequently, other non-governmental organizations functions are important.

The functions of non-governmental organizations are: create new standards, enhance transparency, provide expertise and information, and diminish the North-South division.

Non-governmental organizations ensure transparency through their activities. Non-governmental organizations often and significantly contribute to transparency. Deserves to be noted quote of Cornelia Beyer. The role of non-governmental organizations for the democratization or re-democratization of international politics or foreign policy decision-making processes, respectively, is seen in the creation of transparency through information and education of the public about these processes (Beyer, 2007b).

Non-governmental organizations needed for the European Union stability

The authors concluded that the European political arena is spread over several levels of government, involves various capacities and a high quantity of actors, and follows very complex procedures, calibrated on single policies. This may explain why, in the long process of European integration, only a few actors have had the strength to impose themselves in the complicated labyrinth of European Union bureaucracy.

As we have argued elsewhere within the European system, humanitarian non-governmental organizations had to face the variable of political integration and suffered the lack of institutionalisation. However, they had been able to develop some practices which, during the years, have revealed their suitability. They have strengthened, at first, dialogue among them, and subsequently with the competent European Union bodies. Moreover, the expertise they are able to provide suit perfectly with the new characteristics necessary to maintain the institutional integration European area.

This is still a complex process involving a certain level of political will, as well as many measures of a technical nature and which, surely, still require many years. It seems to be, however, an irreversible one.