Is this the way to Brussels? CEE civil society involvement in EU governance

Whereas state actors from new EU member countries receive formal representation and voting rights that safeguard against their marginalisation in the system of EU governance, civil society organisations from new member states find it much harder to gain access to decision-making processes at the EU level. However, as many of them work on issues that are now (at least partly) decided at the EU level, participation in EU governance should become an integral part of their strategy. Based on a quantitative assessment of membership data for European umbrella organisations and on case studies for which interviews with leading civil society actors were conducted, this article gives a first comparative assessment of the actual participation of civil society organisations from the Central and East European member states in EU governance.