- Trade topics
- Trade policy
The European Commission's approach to consultation with stakeholders is established by the 'Minimum Standards for Consultation' adopted in 2002 (COM (2002)704). With these standards, the Commission aims to ensure that all relevant parties are properly and equally consulted.
Organisations
- Which organisations can sign up to be part of the Trade Civil Society Dialogue?
- What is the Transparency Register?
- How do I register my organisation?
Meetings
- How do I participate in a meeting?
- How do I know that my participation in a meeting is confirmed?
- Travel expenses
Contact Group
Position papers
Account and login
- What account do I need to log in to the website?
- What should I do if I've lost my EU Login password or don't remember my EU Login account?
- How are my personal data processed?
Need more help?
Organisations: Which organisations can sign up to be part of the Trade Civil Society Dialogue
You can register in the Trade Civil Society Dialogue if the organisation you represent is:
- a not-for-profit organisation*
- based in the European Union
- registered in the European Commission's Transparency Register
* Examples are trade unions; employers' federations; business federations; or non-governmental organisations, including community-based groups and grassroots organisations dealing with trade issues.
Political parties and their elected representatives, representatives of Member States, regional and local authorities, and non-EU country representatives have other dedicated channels for dialogue with the Commission.
List of registered organisations
Organisations: How do I register my organisation?
- Before making a new request, check that your organisation fits the requirements above.
- Pre-requisites:
- Your organisation must be listed in the EU Transparency Register.
- Each organisation member wishing to participate in meetings must have an EU Login account. Don't have one? Create an EU Login account
- Pre-requisites:
- The Civil Society Dialogue Team will examine your request and inform you by e-mail if your organisation's registration is accepted.
- The conditions to become part of the Civil Society Dialogue are to be not-for-profit, based in the EU, and to have signed up to the EU Transparency Register. You also need an EU Login account to authenticate.
- Once your organisation is validated and your personal account is activated, you will be allowed to register for meetings.
Not part of the Dialogue yet? Register your organisation
You see your organisation in the list of Registered Organisations, but don't have access? Request access
What is the Transparency Register?
The Transparency Register lists all the organisations willing to promote integrity and legitimacy in their relations with the European institutions. All civil society organisations and interest representatives that engage in influencing the policy formulation and decision-making processes of the European institutions are invited to register.
In signing up, organisations are asked to accept a Code of Conduct and to provide information about their activities: what their mission is, who they represent, and how they are funded. This ensures that both policymakers and the public can assess the strength of the interests promoting a particular policy.
Enroll your organisation in the Transparency Register
Meetings: How do I participate in a meeting?
Meetings allow for open dialogue and exchange of views between civil society organisations and the Commission services. In Civil Society Dialogue meetings, we discuss the latest trade policy initiatives.
- To be able to participate in a meeting, your organisation must be registered in the Civil Society Dialogue database. (See how to register)
- Once your organisation's registration has been accepted and/or your personal account activated, you will be invited to meetings by email.
- To learn more about the different meetings organised, consult the list of future meetings.
Meetings: How do I know that my participation in a meeting is confirmed?
There are two ways of knowing whether your participation in a meeting has been accepted:
Sign in to check your meeting registration status
- You can check the registration summary of the meeting you have signed up for.
- You will receive an e-mail as soon as your participation has been accepted. For this reason, it is important that your e-mail address is always up-to-date in EU Login.
Meetings: Travel expenses
The European Commission currently makes available a limited budget to cover for travel expenses so as to allow EU civil society organisations to participate to our on-site Civil Society Dialogue meetings.
If you are based outside Brussels, you can ask to have your travel costs covered from the city your organisation is based in and back.
Meetings: How are my personal data processed?
To be registered in our Civil Society Database, you will be required to read and agree with the privacy statement for the CSD database.
Once your organisation is registered in the database and that your personal account has been created, you can register for Civil Society Dialogue meetings. Upon registering for each meeting, you can agree/disagree to be part of web-streaming, video/audio recordings and publication activities.
Read how your data are processed
Contact Group: What is the Contact Group, and how does it work?
The Civil Society Dialogue Contact Group is formed by representatives of the different groups that participate in the Dialogue, such as industry, business and professional associations, consumer bodies, trade unions and environmental and other interest groups. It functions as a facilitator and sounding board. Its members provide suggestions from their groups for the planning of the rolling agenda of meetings and on the organisational aspects of the CSD process.
The CSD Contact Group contributes to transparency in both directions. Its members ensure, on one hand, the circulation and dissemination of information to the wider group of their constituencies, and on the other, transmit their suggestions and remarks on the planning and functioning of the process. Registered civil society organisations can choose one contact group member as their contact point.
There are two to four meetings of the CSD Contact Group per year. Contact Group members are required to participate actively and provide input into the CSD process. DG Trade assumes the role of the group's Secretariat.
The composition of the CSD Contact Group should reasonably reflect the major interests of civil society stakeholders. Within the same constituency, civil society organisations may decide which organisation is a member of the contact group.
Position papers: My organisation is part of the dialogue. How can I submit a position paper?
In order to enhance dialogue with Civil Society and to improve transparency, DG Trade welcomes position papers from civil society stakeholders on trade issues.
- Organisations should be registered in the Civil Society Dialogue (see Registering for the Trade Civil Society Dialogue)
- Position papers should be sent in PDF format to the trade civil society mailbox (trade-civilsociety
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (trade-civilsociety[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)) - The documents should include the following standard disclaimer on page 1 or 2: The content of this report does not reflect the official opinion of the European Commission. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the report [therein] lies entirely with the author(s).
- It might be useful to include a link to the website of the concerned organisation at the end of each document, in case readers should require further information.
- The number of documents each organisation can contribute would be one document per month and per organisation.
No documents received in 2021.
You can consult past position papers on the web preservation archive
Authentication and login: What account do I need to log in to the website?
- To be added to the list of participants, register for meetings or to register as a new organisation, you will need an EU Login account.
Authentication and login: What should I do if I've lost my EU Login password or don't remember my EU Login account ?
- Check the EU Login help page for all issues relating to EU Login.
Contact us
If you have not found an answer to your question, please TRADE-SERVICE-DESKec [dot] europa [dot] eu (contact us)
