The EU institutions have become of interest for more and more NGOs in Sweden, but not for all. This study has the overall aim of understanding why different women’s organizations are active at different scales of political policymaking. The focus is on why and how NGOs within the field of gender equality differ in their Europeanization processes.
Della Porte and Caiani formulate three reasons for the NGOs to participate in policymaking on the EU level. Firstly, the NGOs want to strengthen their voice at the domestic level with the support of EU networks. Secondly, NGOs have a desire to influence EU policies. Thirdly, the EU is trying to get NGOs to contribute to the integration of its member states. The alternative to not participate in any form of europeanization is equally interesting to analyze.
Separate Europeanization processes require different conditions and activities by the NGOs. Two questions inspired by Nancy Fraser are posed for the empirical analysis of the Europeanization of Swedish NGOs:
How are the arenas of participation on different policy-making levels perceived and utilized by the NGOs?
Who is included in the policy-making processes and how are the NGOs reacting to the principles of inclusion?
Gender issues are particularly well organized at the EU level by the European Women’s Lobby and the Social Platform which could support all three theoretical assumptions about the causes of Europeanization. Despite the possibility of using strong networks, there are many women organizations who choose not to strategically participate at the EU level. It is therefore interesting to see the extent to which organizations participate at other political levels. Here it is relevant to study their activity at local, subregional, national and Nordic policy-making levels.
Information is assembled for Swedish NGOs that participated in the Nordic Forum in 2014.
