While the results of the 2020 Citizens' Climate Convention, which was criticized for its methodology and whose conclusions remain largely unimplemented, leave a lukewarm memory, a new Citizens' Convention was launched in December 2022 on the highly sensitive issue of the end of life, with a view to possible legislative changes. With the increasingly frequent recourse to this exercise, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), designated as the forum for the implementation of citizen participation, is seeing its influence increase in the institutional game.
At a time when opinion polls point to a breakdown in trust between the French and their institutions, the organization of a new citizens' convention on the end of life attests to the executive's determination to put citizens back at the heart of debates on the major societal issues of tomorrow. An unprecedented democratic exercise when it concerned environmental issues, this is now a regular consultation event. To support this evolution, the EESC has been entrusted with new missions, in particular the organization of these citizens' conventions.
The 2021 reform confirms the EESC's traditional role as a crossroads for citizen participation, helping to consolidate its legitimacy. As the democratic expression of organized civil society as a whole, what is considered the "third chamber of the Republic" is now enriched by this new tool, enabling it to meet its original objective: to achieve consensus in response to the challenges of today and tomorrow. Its ability to represent, at national level, the issues facing our society means that organized civil society has a greater role to play in shaping public policy.
Giving a voice to the many representatives of organized civil society - associations, trade unions, non-governmental organizations - this institution could be in a position to anticipate major social movements and profound changes in society. By calling on the CESER (Conseil Economique, Social et Environnemental Régional - Regional Economic, Social and Environmental Councils), which are in no way dependent on the EESC but which are built on the same model and work in the same way, the EESC can complete its perception, its "expertise of use", from the territories.
The EESC therefore becomes a player not to be underestimated in a global approach to relations with institutions, particularly in the context of medium- and long-term influence strategies. As an infusion of ideas and a mirror of the expectations and needs of organized civil society as a whole, it can act as a spokesperson for them to the highest decision-making circles, its role as defined by the Constitution being to enlighten the Public Authorities through its opinions.
Anna Guihard & Gabrielle Maes consultants