On September 23, in Podgorica, the Berlin Process’s Civil Society Forum brought together civil society actors from across the Western Balkans ahead of the annual Berlin Proces, aiming to finalize key policy recommendations in the six policy areas: Common Regional Market and Growth; Gender and Diversity; Reconciliation and Dealing with the Past; Environment, Energy and Decarbonisation; Security; and Good Governance. BCSDN’s Head of Policy and Advocacy participated in the “Civil Society – Still Here” spotlight session on CSO Operating Environment, as one of the key cross-cutting issues, highlighting the resilience and ongoing challenges faced by the civil society sector, and the need to safeguard civic space as a core precondition for achieving EU-related reforms. Bosilkova-Antovska emphasized the importance of active government and EU involvement to ensure meaningful dialogue, and called for stronger commitment to the recommendations on civic space made in the Forums, including setting clear benchmarks and targets for measuring progress and linking it with political consequences in order to ensure that the recommendations do not remain aspirational. Read more here.
Source: BCSDN/British Council