It wants to be the “Forum of the Republic”: after having organized the citizens' convention on the climate, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese) will guide this week the 35 French people drawn by lot to issue an advisory opinion on the vaccine strategy in France.
Strengthening the role of this council was one of the major projects of Emmanuel Macron's mandate, in order to promote forms of participatory democracies ... and respond to the growing mistrust that targets public authorities.
An organic law was adopted on December 15 to this effect.
It thus enshrines this principle of citizens drawn by lot to work with the council and carry the voice of civil society between parliament and the executive.
But without clear prerogatives, the institution struggles to convince even in its future version:
"missed opportunity"
for supporters of participatory democracy
, "smokescreen"
for others ...
To read also: Patrick Bernasconi: "The Economic, Social and Environmental Council will support the vaccine strategy"
In the idea, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council is a citizens' body aiming to balance the powers by bringing the field perspective of the "organized civil society" (unions, companies, associations ...) to policies often from the upper level. public function.
Until the reform, it was composed of 233 members appointed from among the intermediate bodies, the institution fulfills an advisory role to the government and Parliament.
The organic law passed in December reduced its traditional workforce and mandated the council to organize public consultations: the government's plan was to transform the Cese into
"a crossroads for public consultations"
.
The text thus facilitated recourse to petitions to the Council, which can now be sent on the Internet, signed from the age of 16 and received from 150,000 members.
The Cese's strongest instrument for promoting civil rights lies in this possibility of involving citizens drawn by lot in the discussions according to the principles of "equality, transparency and impartiality".
The experience of conventions, collectives, committees and other citizens' assemblies is therefore doomed to be repeated in the future for major societal debates, starting with that of vaccination.
“We are not here to write the law, but to inform public debate and ensure that the decisions that are taken are as close as possible to the concerns of citizens.
The EESC is the only real place for dialogue, appeasement and consensus,
”President Patrick Bernasconi told Le Figaro.
"After the one on the climate, we will welcome other citizens' conventions to allow civil society to be more listened to and ensure the link between public authorities and citizens."
Read also: Is the Citizen's Climate Convention representative of the French?
But what does “informing public debate” really mean?
If the reform encourages the organization of citizen collectives, their prerogatives within the Cese are not clearly defined by the reform.
As much as the citizens' convention for the climate was aimed at formulating proposals - moreover accused of being ultimately "unraveled" by the government, the committee on vaccination is only responsible for "making observations and calling on Alain Fischer ”to express fears in a report submitted“ by the summer ”.
"
A democracy of short straw,
" accuses Muriel Jourda, rapporteur of the reform law in the Senate.
“Our democratic institutions were built on the legitimacy of the election.
Elected officials have a mandate that engages their responsibility.
Citizen participation can nourish democratic deliberation, in no way substitute for it ”.
Critics of these citizens' committees fear that the Cese will overstep its advisory role, without however having the means to bring the voice of civil society:
"Either the people are consulted directly to make decisions, and this is called a referendum," or they choose people who are supposed to represent them, and that's an election.
If the goal is to probe public opinion, we need a much larger panel than 35 people drawn at random who represent only themselves, ”
says Christophe Boutin, professor of public law and member of the Pont Neuf think-tank.
The risk of discrediting the system
Too small, without clear and assumed roles ... Even among supporters of participatory democracy, these committees are debating: some fear half-hearted counterproductive prerogatives.
"Citizens' conventions at a discount, without proper governance and independent guarantee, risk creating even more mistrust than there already is"
, regrets Armel Le Coz, co-founder of the Open Democracy collective.
“Organizing an exercise in deliberative democracy takes a lot of time and energy.
Drowning the system in an overflow of conventions and committees that have no direct link to decision-making just risks losing the Cese's clarity.
And create a smokescreen.
"
At the risk that this reform of the Cese ultimately served, according to Armel Le Coz, only to "organize pretext committees" in the air of political communication.
In a column published on December 14 in the JDD, activists for participatory democracy emphasized:
“The stated ambition of this reform is laudable: to perpetuate the experience of the Citizens 'Convention and make the EESC the chamber of national citizens' conventions.
But this reform will only be a success on condition of guaranteeing the quality of citizen participation and deliberation and above all of guaranteeing its real influence on political decisions.
We are far from it, ”
they wrote.