The Dynamics of Claiming, Attributing and Contesting Legitimacy: Becoming a Non-Governmental “Partner” in EU-Mediterranean Politics

“Civil society”, defined as a “partner in governance”, is part of EU-rhetoric and political engineering in Mediterranean politics since the 1990s. Accordingly, the EU has developed specific instruments such as dedicated budget lines, civil forums, consultations, programs or training workshops. Being recognized as a partner can bolster the legitimation of a group through access to the decision-making arenas or to financial and symbolic resources. Simultaneously, the “civil society” rhetoric sustains EU-Commission's efforts to counter the alleged democratic deficit through “democratic governance” theory. The paper analyses how non-state-actors, in particular NGOs and voluntary organizations legitimate their role in the political arena. Rather than theoretical criteria defining the democratic legitimacy of a group, the paper focuses on the process of legitimation by which political actors seek to be recognized as legitimate. Using official EU-documents, archives of voluntary organizations and qualitative interviews carried out with non-state-actors involved in the Euro-Mediterranean Non-Governmental Platform and EuroMed Rights, we analyse the repertoires of actions, organizational structure and legitimacy claims of non-state actors. The legitimacy claims are based on two contending dynamics: bringing in expertise by insider strategies while at the same time representing "civil society" by showing close ties with partner organizations and members and by framing action in terms of general interest. The selection procedures tend to recognize organizations that have specific expertise, qualified permanent staff, and long term interactions with the EU-Commission and use advocacy techniques. The paper shows that legitimation in EU-Mediterranean politics is both a long term interactive process based on claiming and attributing legitimacy and a contested process between competing groups and claims.