Civil Society Europe's Newsletter
May - June 2024
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Welcome to our mid-May to June newsletter! In this edition, you will find:
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CSE Annual General Assembly
On June 26th, we held CSE’s Annual General Assembly in Brussels, presenting and discussing CSE’s work and next steps. The occasion served to adopt CSE’s Strategic Action Plan 2025-2029, the work programme and budget for 2025, as well as CSE’s Code of Conduct.
A huge thank you to all our members for their invaluable contributions!
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Participation of civil society in the EU Annual Rule of Law Report
On June 27th, Gabriella Civico, CSE President, intervened at the Study group meeting and input session on the EESC draft opinion on the EU annual reports on the rule of law (SOC/797). There, she brought the perspective of CSE Working Group on Civic Space about how to reinforce the participation of civil society in the process as well as make the reports more impactful.
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CSE at the Polish Conference of Civil Society (OFIP)
On June 26th and 27th, Civil Society Europe (CSE) participated in the IX National Forum of Non-Governmental Initiatives (OFIP), which gathered around 600 civil society activists from Poland and beyond to discuss the challenges and opportunities of civil society at the Polish and European level. Alexandrina Najmowicz, in representation of CSE, provided valuable insights from civil society to enhance civic space in the European Union during the panel “Enhancing civic space in the EU - a look back”.
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CSE at the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC)
CSE participated in the 2024 IACC, which took place in Lithuania from June 18th - 21st. As part of the panel "Whose Interests do we serve? Foreign Agent Laws and their Impact on Anti-Corruption Efforts", Carlotta Besozzi, CSE's Director, provided civil society's perspective regarding the Defence of Democracy (DoD) Directive on third-country interest representation and discussed the impact of the DoD Directive as a Foreign Agents law in disguise, as well as civil society proposals to limit its negative impact.
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CSE at the Brussels Pro Bono Roundtable
On June 13th, CSE’s director, Carlotta Besozzi, participated at the Brussels Pro Bono Roundtable as part of the European Pro Bono Week, which focused on the state of play of pro bono in Belgium. There, joined by other speakers from civil society, the Barreau de Bruxelles and the Bureau voor Juridische Bijstand, CSE’s director presented concrete opportunities for lawyers to volunteer their skills.
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Civil Society for EU campaign
Over 75 newly elected MEPs and the lead candidates from most of the main European political families have signed the “Civil Society for EU” campaign pledge, committing to support European civil society during the upcoming mandate! This includes the lead candidates of PES, the Greens, Renew Europe and the Party of European Left. In total, 455 candidates to the EP elections signed the pledge.
The full list can be found on the campaign website.
Do you have any questions? Reach out to the campaign coordinator:
riccardo(dot)rossella(at)civilsocietyeurope(dot)eu, and/or contact(at)civilsocietyeurope(dot)eu.
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CSE at the Forum Terzo Settore
On May 29th, CSE participated in the II Forum Terzo Settore, an event that reunited the third sector and EU elections candidates of Italian political forces to discuss a democratic EU. There, Riccardo Rossella, CSE’s Coalition and Campaign Officer, presented CSE’s perspectives on civic space, a Civil Society Strategy and our Civil Society for EU campaign.
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Relevant policy developments in the EU
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General Affairs Council discussion on the Directive on third country interest representation
On 25th June, the General Affairs EU Council discussed the Directive on third country interest representation, based on an initial discussion document. While in general the Member States expressed their favour to combat foreign interference, many of them raised doubts about the effectiveness of the Directive, as well as the potential to stigmatise civil society and for the proposal to be interpreted as a ‘foreign agents law’. While some of them asked to extend the scope of the Directive to cover interest representation regardless of its origin, several asked for a further impact assessment of the possible effects of the Directive, including on fundamental rights.
CSE has been leading a coalition of civil society organisations from different fields to make the Permanent Representations of the Member States to the EU aware of the dangers of the proposed Directive. While the topic has definitely been put on the table of the Council, work is still to be done to convince their Member States to rethink their approach on foreign interference to produce something which is effective and does not stigmatise civil society.
Read CSE’s latest briefing paper about the Directive here.
Rewatch the meeting here and read the press release here.
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