At a time when civil society organisations (CSOs) are facing new restrictions in certain Member States, notably Hungary – as the European Parliament has stated in its work on the ‘Article 7’ procedure on the Rule of law – the European Commission presented a strategy on Wednesday 12 November that was aimed at integrating CSOs more fully into the work of the EU and defending them by providing greater protection for their activities.
The strategy covers three key objectives, according to a press release: - Fostering engagement: a new Civil Society Platform will be established by 2026 to facilitate dialogue on the protection and promotion of EU values; - Support and protect: an online Knowledge Hub on Civic Space will be created alongside the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, in order to facilitate access to existing projects and tools; - Guaranteeing sustainable and transparent funding: in the new 2028–2034 MFF, the European Commission has proposed to increase financial support for civil society organisations, with €9 billion earmarked for the AgoraEU programme. This will merge the ‘culture’ and ‘media’ strands of the Creative Europe programme (see EUROPE 13735/31) and will encourage private donors.
“Operating at local, regional, national and international level – both within the EU and beyond – civil society helps promote and protect the values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (the Charter)”, states the Commission.
The founding treaties “set out that EU institutions should engage with civil society through open, transparent and regular dialogue and to conduct their work as openly as possible in order to ensure civil society’s inclusive and active participation”.
For this dialogue to be effective, the EU increasingly recognises that civil society needs an enabling, safe and supportive environment for its action throughout the EU. This also requires adequate protection for CSOs and human rights defenders who are experiencing an “overall shrinking civic space and who face threats and attacks in relation to their work”.
Sustainable and transparent financial support is also essential for a thriving civil society and to guarantee the independence of CSOs, the Commission adds. “CSOs often need other types of support, such as help in kind, which can be provided by professionals or volunteers. The legal support provided by pro bono lawyers can play a key role in this”.
The strategy also proposes ten principles for this dialogue between the European Commission and civil society: partnership, comprehensiveness, predictability and regularity, transparency, representation, inclusivity, accessibility, accountability, resourcing and safety.
With regard to protection measures, the EU institution undertakes to study the possibility of “urgent assistance” to organisations under threat and “the coordination of available protection measures in Member States”. It is important to “ensure that European and national policies and legislation foster an enabling environment for CSOs, and to strengthen actions to monitor and protect them”.
Link to the European Commission communication: https://aeur.eu/f/jdh (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)