The EU Commission has a long tradition of consulting interested parties when formulating its policies. While the rationale, format and legal basis relied upon by the Commission when holding public consultations have changed over time, its systemic inability to make those consultations equally accessible to all affected parties has remained constant. This article, by engaging with theoretically informed empirical studies, discusses the extent to which such a consultation practice conflicts with the principle of political equality, as enshrined in Article 9 TEU. Given the Commission’s unrestrained discretion regarding who, how and when to consult and the absence of corresponding participatory rights, it argues that the EU can no longer presume that all stakeholders — especially citizens and civil society groups — enjoy equal access to EU institutions, as well as equal information, and voice. Rather, under a proposed substantive reading of the principle of political equality, it contends that EU institutions are procedurally required to ensure that everyone will effectively be given equal opportunities of access to the policy process. To attain this objective, it puts forward a set of recommendations aimed at re-designing the actual legal and policy framework for consultations, on the one hand, and building an enabling participatory environment surrounding them, on the other hand. Ultimately, only a series of structural, power-shifting reforms — some of which are proposed in this article — may enable participation to become an autonomous form of legitimation of the Union.

中文翻译：

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公平的欧盟参与竞争环境：根据政治平等原则对委员会公众咨询的法律和政策分析

欧盟委员会在制定政策时有咨询利益相关方的悠久传统。尽管委员会在举行公众咨询时所依赖的理由、形式和法律依据随着时间的推移而发生了变化，但它在系统性上无法使所有受影响的各方平等地参与这些咨询的能力一直保持不变。本文通过结合理论知识丰富的实证研究，讨论了此类咨询实践与 TEU 第 9 条所规定的政治平等原则相冲突的程度。鉴于委员会在协商的对象、方式和时间方面拥有不受限制的自由裁量权，并且没有相应的参与权，它认为，欧盟不能再假定所有利益相关者——尤其是公民和民间社会团体——都享有平等进入欧盟机构的机会，以及平等的信息和发言权。相反，根据对政治平等原则的拟议实质性解读，它认为欧盟机构在程序上需要确保每个人都将有效地获得平等机会参与政策进程。为实现这一目标，它提出了一系列建议，一方面旨在重新设计实际的法律和政策协商框架，另一方面围绕这些框架建立有利的参与环境。最终，只有一系列的结构性，