The role of governance of consultative institutions: European Union and MERCOSUR

Abstract

The participation of decentralized actors in regional integrations has gained relevance through the years not just concerning institutional decision-making but also has called the attention of part of academic studies. The development of civil society has taken shape of labor unions, NGO’S, IO’S, associations, and others, who found trough formal organization a way of infiltrate and institutionalize their influence and participation inside mechanisms of regional integrations. Taking into account that the main institution of representation for the subnational level is the Committee of Regions (CoR) and for the civil society is the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the present article intends to demonstrate the role of these institutions in face of the European Union. In the case of Mercosur will be analyzed the Consultative Forum of Municipalities, Federated States, Provinces and Departments (FCCR) and the Economic and Social Consultative Forum (FCES). In order to label these roles, will be used a typology that defines civil society in four different categories: partner, legitimator, resistance, and critiques. The first session defines and explores this typology, while the following sessions cover the origins, main actors, and level of autonomy of the above-mentioned institutions, associating them with one of the typologies in order to better reflect on their interactions and pressures of these agents over European Union and MERCOSUR.