33. Stresses the need, which has been recognised since the 1990s, to ensure direct participation by societal stakeholders at European level in order to reflect their views more effectivel
y, given that their representation on national technical committees in most Member States remains weak; affirms that, as very limited success has been achieved in increasing societal stakeholder participation at national level, financial and political support for the European organisations established to
represent such stakeholders needs to be maintained and strengthened at least in the period to 2020; calls on
...[+++] those organisations to play a prominent role in providing advice to Member States and national stakeholder associations with a view to strengthening the participation of the respective stakeholders at national level;