?Vi försvinner som en droppe i havet?
En uppsats om svenska civilsamhällesorganisationers upplevelser av sina påverkansmöjligheter i EU
This Bachelor Thesis looks at the cooperation between the Swedish civil society and theEuropean Union (EU), and it aims at evaluating Swedish civil society organizations' influencewithin the EU's development work on policy level. It focuses primarily on eight civil societyorganizations, and it is based on empirical material collected in Stockholm and Gothenburg,Sweden. The material has been analyzed using three theoretical frameworks. The firstdetermines whether the structure of the EU allows bottom-up influence, the second looks atthe communication between the EU and civil society organizations, and the third assesseswhether the civil society has the ability to influence the political agenda within the EU?sdevelopment work.Conclusions of the thesis include determining the complex structure of the EU as a mainobstacle to influencing the EU's development work. Additional factors discussed are theeffects of one-way communication, lack of power to influence the EU?s political agenda andan uneven distribution of resources. Due to these deficiencies a single civil societyorganization has very limited possibilities to influence the EU. Network governance ishighlighted and viewed as a more effective way to influencing the EU. However, we arguethat the consisting network between the EU and Swedish civil society organizations ishierarchical rather than horizontal. The structure must be improved to allow two-waycommunication and facilitate agenda-setting and hence increase the Swedish civil society?slevel of influence within the EU?s development work.