The Meaningful Engagement Handbook: Civil Society Perspectives on EU Delegations Consultations

In 2022, CONCORD published a paper gathering seven practices for civil society participation in EU decision-making. These seven practices define what we mean by a meaningful engagement of civil society, have been recognised by and guide our interaction with the European Union (EU).

To get a better understanding of how the EU is implementing the seven practices, especially in consultations with civil society in its partner countries, we launched a meaningful engagement platform in 2025 with two objectives: a space to share knowledge with and among civil society organisations (CSOs) to support their engagement with the EU, and a survey to gather their experience of consultations with EU delegations. The survey focuses on four key elements: information sharing, co-creation, inclusion and diversity, and feedback loops.

This paper presents the experiences shared by civil society during the seven months following the launch of the platform (October 2025 to April 2026).

Do you have a consultation soon? You can download our two-pager with “small steps to strengthen meaningful engagement”: a short list of good practices and concrete, actionable recommendations!