The Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) is excited to announce its upcoming workshop and advocacy event in Brussels.
On 1 March, together with our Western Balkans and Turkey members, we will brief DG NEAR and DG JUST representatives about the civil society state of play in the Western Balkans and Türkiye (WBT) and discuss with leading CSOs from the region how the EU could support the civil society to contribute more effectively to strengthening the rule of law in these countries, that leads to more accountable governance and more open and deeper democracies.
The workshop will be followed by a hybrid and open advocacy event co-hosted with the Greens in the European Parliament on 2 March, under the title “Empowering civil society in the EU, Western Balkans & Türkiye”. The event will bring together MEPs and leading CSOs from the WBT region and the EU. We will explore the civil society state of play in the Western Balkans and Turkey, as well as the recent push for protecting the EU civic space in a way that contributes to strengthening democracies in the enlargement countries and also making the EU accession process more credible.
During these events, BCSDN will present findings from our continuous monitoring and advocacy flagship product, the Monitoring Matrix for enabling environment, which evaluates the state of CSOs in the Western Balkans and Turkey, as well as its joint positions on the overall state of democracies.
Both events will provide an opportunity for BCSDN and its members to present their joint positions on the state of democracies in the region and advocate for concrete policy measures to support civil society in the accession process.
We look forward to our visit to Brussels will contribute to shaping the EU’s policy agenda on the Western Balkans and Turkey, ensuring that civil society actors are given the support they need to thrive and contribute to the region’s democratic development.
For more information and registration on the BCSDN event in the European Parliament, please visit the following link: https://actionnetwork.org/events/back-to-the-roots-of-democracy-empowering-civil-society-in-europe-the-western-balkans-turkey/