On 27 June 2025, the EU TACSO 3 project held the official launch of the 2024 Regional Assessment Report against the DG ENEST Guidelines for EU Support to Civil Society in the Enlargement Region (2021–2027). The report offers a comparative analysis of civic space developments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Türkiye, building on previous assessments in 2021 and 2023 to highlight trends in freedoms, cooperation, and civil society resilience.
The event brought together institutional actors and civil society representatives to reflect on the findings and chart ways forward amid growing challenges. Key topics included the enabling environment, government–civil society cooperation, and CSO capacity and accountability.
BCSDN took part in the expert panel discussion along with Prof. Igor Vidačak, who spoke on strengthening cooperation between civil society and public authorities, stressing the need for institutional trust and political commitment, and Dragan Srećković, author of the EU TACSO 3 “Deep Dive” on CSO sustainability, addressed the challenges and pathways to building CSO capacity and financial sustainability. Ms. Enrica Chiozza, Head of Sector for Civil Society, Social Inclusion, and Human Capital Development at DG ENEST, European Commission, spoke about the EU’s role in supporting civil society, reinforcing the importance of principled engagement, transparency, and structural partnerships.
BCSDN’s Head of Policy and Advocacy, Anja Bosilkova Antovska, offered reflections on how civil society can counter the ongoing decline in the enabling environment. Drawing from the 2024 Monitoring Matrix Regional Report and BCSDN’s long-standing advocacy, her intervention emphasized:
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The need to repoliticize the civic space agenda, calling out not just legislative or procedural barriers but also the political intent behind foreign agent laws, funding restrictions, and shrinking support for advocacy.
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The importance of building a compelling counter-narrative rooted in values, trust, and dignity – not only by speaking truth to power, but also speaking to people, in language that resonates and mobilizes.
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A call for transforming consultation into meaningful participation, beginning from the agenda-setting stage and moving beyond tokenism.
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The urgency of rebuilding the financial infrastructure of civil society through long-term, flexible support and enabling tax/fiscal frameworks.
Bosilkova Antovska also stressed that persistent civic engagement works, citing examples from across the region where public pressure has changed government narratives or reversed policy directions. She concluded by reaffirming BCSDN’s call to the EU to establish binding civil society benchmarks in the enlargement process, prioritize support to local, value-aligned actors, and institutionalize civil society as a core partner in policy and reform.
Participants agreed that shrinking civic space and increasingly hostile environments require consistent and principled EU conditionality. Mr. Vidacak noted that civic freedoms must be fully mainstreamed into the EU enlargement methodology and accession benchmarks, while Mr. Srećković stressed the remarkable resilience of civil society in organizing, mobilizing, and holding institutions accountable – despite systemic challenges.
Participants agreed that the shrinking civic space is not unique to the Western Balkans and Türkiye, but part of a wider European trend. Bosilkova Antovska highlighted the need for stronger transnational cooperation, pointing to initiatives such as the EESC Enlargement Candidate Member mechanism, inclusion in programmes like CERV, and the ongoing consultations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). She underlined that the upcoming EU Civil Society Strategy should explicitly include the introduction of binding civic space benchmarks as part of rule of law conditionality in the accession process. Discussions highlighted that supporting CSO advocacy is not just a democratic imperative—it is an investment in the sustainability of reforms across the EU accession process.
📄 More on the 2024 Regional Assessment Report here.
📘 Download BCSDN’s 2024 Monitoring Matrix Regional Report here.