The BCSDN released its 16th annual analysis, “Civic Space as a Credibility Test,” for the 2025 EU Enlargement Package, assessing the environment for civil society in the Western Balkans and Türkiye (WBT). The report highlights a critical structural gap: governments can advance accession while simultaneously restricting civic space—which, along with media freedom and democratic institutions, remains the weakest area across the region. Restrictions are increasingly sophisticated, involving the misuse of administrative pressure and financial controls (like AML/CFT) and the systematic use of smear campaigns and “foreign-agent” rhetoric to delegitimize oversight actors. Furthermore, CSO consultation frameworks often function as procedural façades, with little meaningful inclusion of feedback. BCSDN urges the EU to make civic space an official accession benchmark—integrating indicators like SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) and AML/CFT misuse into the fundamentals cluster—and link EU financial aid to demonstrable improvements in civic freedoms. Read more here.
Source: BCSDN