During the last decade the EU has raised many expectations about the role that organised civil society could play in its democratisation. However Spanish civil society’s contribution to democracy is limited by its own weaknesses as it is the case of other Southern European countries. Furthermore the elite domination and strong political consensus around EU issues make it difficult for Spanish organisations to stand out and play a specific role in bringing Spanish citizens closer to the EU. The question of the attitude of Spanish civil society towards the EU is particularly relevant on the wake of the Europeanisation of the political discourse of the May 15th social movement and of the new paths of contestation that the participatory tools of article 11 of the Lisbon Treaty (TUE) may provide.
This paper analyses the role of Spanish civil society organisations in the debate about participatory democracy in the making of the European constitution (2002-2005) and the framing of European politics in the May 15th movement. The paper will analyses the ability of Spanish organisations and the May 15th movement to represent causes at the European level, to contribute to build up European debates in the public sphere and ability to articulate citizens’ participation. It will pay particular attention to discourse and collective action with particular focus on frame analysis.
The paper finds that the ability of civil society to articulate citizens’ participations is more related to the political opportunity structure that results from the national consensus on the EU and internal participatory structure rather than of strengths or weaknesses in terms of resource availability.
