European Civil Society: Its Concepts and Actual Appearances

European civil society appears in different forms, as “organized”, institutionalized European civil society; then, in the form of mass civic protests and social movements - counter-summits and European Social Forums, and finally, as manifold networks, initiatives, and NGOs which act at the European level or at the level of the nation-state. Most often, civil society organizations accept pro-European affiliations as well as Euro-sceptic orientation; citizens of particular nation-states in the EU mobilize themselves against the European integration process. Deep economic and monetary crises have caused certain changes in manifestations and focuses of the European civil society. At the European level as well as on the nation-state level the economic issues, anti-posterity measures demands, anti -“core Europe” dictates driven towards debtor countries demands have come into the centre of civic protests in the EU. With the outburst of the crisis and with the uprising of ethno-nationalist, particularistic and extreme-right tendencies across the EU, appearances of the Euro-sceptic civil society have also become more common.