The Structured Dialogue for an effective partnership in development was launched by
Commissioner Piebalgs in March 2010. This initiative will last until May 2011 with a final conference
co-organized with the Hungarian Presidency of the EU. For the first time ever, the EC is proposing
such a long-term & predictable window of opportunity for dialogue with civil society
organisations (CSO) & local authorities (LA) worldwide.
The main objective of this process is to find a common understanding and reach a multistakeholders
consensus on the main topics linked to civil society & local authorities’ involvement
in EU development cooperation. This process is ambitious as it tries to be as inclusive as possible.
It has however some limitations: (i) it is not a decision-making process (the EC is committed to use
results of the Structured Dialogue to feed forthcoming institutional discussions with EU Member-
States & European Parliament and expects that involved stakeholders will also take on board
recommendations to improve their own practices); (ii) it has not been possible to directly involve
Partner States representatives; (iii) it evolves in a rather institutional uncertainty due to the current
reshaping of the overall EU external actions’ institutional setting: creation of the EEAS & DG
DEVCO2 of the European Commission.
