BCSDN provides an analysis of the 2024 EC Rule of Law (RoL) report, which, for the first time, includes accession countries: Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia as the most advanced ones on the EU path. The report places these countries on equal footing with EU member states, reflecting their progress in EU integration and highlighting EU support for rule of law reforms in the Western Balkans. Monitoring accession countries on par with member states is in line with BCSDN’s long-term advocacy efforts for applying equal and rigorous standards to both current EU member states and countries aspiring to join the EU. BCSDN’s analysis compares the Commission’s assessment with its own monitoring, noting that the report realistically portrays the challenges faced by civil society in these countries, such as restrictive laws, smear campaigns against CSOs, activists and journalists, limited public funding, and lack of CSO-government cooperation. The analysis briefly compares the state of the enabling environment for civil society in accession countries against to the EU member states and provides conclusions and recommendations on EC RoL cycle and report improvement. Read the full analysis here.
Source: BCSDN