Civil Society Europe Newsletter
July - September 2024
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Welcome to our July - September newsletter. In this edition, you will find:
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CSE's take on the Commissioners-designate: a step forward for civic space
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After a delayed start due to negotiations with National governments, the European Commission’s (EC) President-elect unveiled her team on 17 September. While it remains difficult to navigate the competences of commissioners and vice presidents and understand the portfolios’ titles, and some choices (including on equality and gender balance) raised important concerns among civil society, we welcome the positive news regarding commitments to civic space.
Stepping up engagement with civil society
Our ‘Civil Society for EU’ elections campaign, our call endorsed by 416 civil society organisations, and subsequent meetings with the President-elect’s cabinet led to some interesting proposals. In particular, Commissioner-designate McGrath on “Democracy, Justice and the Rule of Law” was asked in his mission letter to “step up engagement with civil society on democracy, rule of law and related issues [and] build a Civil Society Platform to support more systematic civil dialogue and work to strengthen protection of civil society, activists and human rights defenders in their work”.
A Civil Society Platform
We are pleased that, unlike von der Leyen’s previous mandate, the Commissioner will not be just a simple contact point but will aim for real dialogue with civil society. We also welcome the proposal for structured civil dialogue through a Civil Society Platform as a follow-up to our meeting with the cabinet. We understand that such a Platform will convene civil society organisations (CSOs) and the Commission’s decision-makers to address transversal issues with umbrella CSOs such as an annual discussion on the preparation of the EC’s work programme, upcoming key policy development and responses to crisis, as well as guidelines for sectoral civil dialogue within the different Commission’s Directorate-Generals.
Ensuring representation and plurality
As the representative organisation of civil society at the EU level, we look forward to playing a key role in the Platform set-up and rollout, engaging all relevant EU networks —as we have done so far through the civil society coalition for the Conference on the Future of Europe, the preparation of the Civil Society State of the Union, the ‘Civil Society for EU’ campaign and through our multiple advocacy initiatives. It is also paramount that members of the Platform are agreed upon collectively by civil society and not nominated by institutions. This will guarantee the Platform’s representativeness, plurality and legitimacy, and ensure the relevance of the discussion. We want the Platform to be an important participative democracy tool and set a good practice for other EU institutions and advisory bodies. We will soon issue a fully-fledged recommendation as one of the building blocks of our upcoming proposal for an inter-institutional framework on civil dialogue. In the meantime, you can read our statement about the Civil Society Platform here.
Protecting activists and human rights defenders
We also welcome the mandate’s attention to strengthening the protection of civil society, activists and human rights defenders (HRDs) in their work and are looking forward to engaging with the future Commission on setting up civil society-led protection hubs and an early warning mechanism. In the upcoming days, together with a coalition of CSOs, we will launch the reports 'Realising Protection for Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society Organisations in Europe', where we map the protection landscape and, based on gaps and challenges, propose ways to build a stronger ecosystem for the protection of HRDs and CSOs.
A strong signal from the European Parliament
We hope that the above-mentioned critical points will be addressed during the hearings at the European Parliament so as to be further reinforced. Encouragingly, the European Parliament has also sent a strong signal by appointing two vice presidents on Relations with European civil society organisations. Moreover, 100 newly-elected MEPs signed our pledge committing to better recognise, safeguard, support and engage with civil society at all levels through a civil society strategy.
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to push for a strengthened civil dialogue and vibrant civic space in the EU!
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What has CSE been up to since July?
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Open letter: Ensuring a vibrant civic space in the next 5 years
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On the occasion of International Democracy Day, 415 civil society organisations joined CSE’s open letter urging EU leaders to take decisive action to foster a vibrant civic space, uphold democracy, and safeguard fundamental rights in the next five years. Our demands? a European Civil Society Strategy, a Civil Dialogue Agreement and more.
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Civil Society for EU campaign
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100+ 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!
The full list can be found on the campaign website.
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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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Joint statement: Journalists and civil society warn against the Foreign Interference Directive
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Article 19, Civil Society Europe and the European Federation of Journalists issued a joint statement calling for the immediate withdrawal of the proposed Directive on third-country interest representation, part of the Defence of Democracy Package. The statement underlines how the Directive is ineffective in combating foreign interference and poses risks to freedom of expression and media freedom.
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CSE, together with other European organisations, published an explanatory document on the proposed Directive on European Cross-Border Associations (ECBA). The document answers key questions raised in discussions with some Member States and provides arguments in support of its approval.
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Q&A: the Directive on third-country interest representation
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CSE, together with other CSOs, published a Q&A document to address key questions about the scope of the proposed Directive on third-country interest representation. The document covers the Directive’s implications for foreign interference in Europe; foreign interest representation legislation outside of the EU; disinformation, media and social media; freedoms of association and expression; and academic freedom.
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Public statement: Cuts to ‘Whoiswho’ impact transparency and civil society engagement
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CSE and Social Platform expressed their disappointment at the Commission’s refusal to review its decision to remove the work contact details of all the staff below the Head of Unit level from the public online directory ‘Whoiswho’. This refusal came despite the Ombudsman’s solution proposal that the institution conduct a new decision-making process and civil society’s warnings about a step back in civil society engagement and EU transparency.
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7th Bavarian Day for Youth in Europe
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On the 26th September, CSE participated at the 7th Bavarian Day for Youth in Europe, organised by the youth organisation Bayerische Jugendring. We provided the facilitation for a productive session on democracy education, with participants from 14 to 21 years of age.
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UN Special Rapporteurs raise concerns about the Foreign Interference Directive
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Three UN Special Rapporteurs and an independent expert on human rights and international solidarity wrote to the EU raising concerns about possible human rights's violations contained in the Foreign Interference Directive. They call for an overhauling of the Directive, eliminating the ‘foreign interference’ element and pleading for a general transparency approach. Read the letter here.
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