At the high-level conference “EU Enlargement and Societal Transformation in the Western Balkans: Civil Society and Youth Engagement for Democratic Resilience” hosted by the College of Europe on 13 March in Tirana, BCSDN Executive Director Biljana Spasovska joined a panel alongside Commissioner Marta Kos and other key speakers to discuss the role of civil society in shaping democratic transformation. Spasovska warned of the increasing repression of civic actors and the need to embed civic space protections as binding accession benchmarks. BCSDN emphasized that civil society must be recognized as a development actor, not a technical accessory, and called on the EU to return to a value-based enlargement process. Commissioner Kos reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to increasing support for civil society, stressing that “strong civil society ultimately means strong democracy.” The panel reinforced BCSDN’s position that democratic reforms must not be sidelined in pursuit of geopolitical expediency. Read more here.
Source: BCSDN
