Civic space in the Western Balkans and Türkiye is under threat. Governments are enacting restrictive laws, silencing media, and using financial and legal pressure to marginalize civil society. Protest rights are curtailed, defamation is criminalized, and SLAPP lawsuits target activists and journalists. With public funding scarce and politically controlled, independent CSOs struggle to operate, leaving citizens without vital advocates. At the same time, governments delay EU reforms, fueling public distrust in the enlargement process. BCSDN’s policy brief, The Missing Piece: Why Civic Space Must Be an EU Accession Priority, urges the EU to act. Civic space protections must be built into the enlargement strategy as a core condition—essential not only for democratic resilience in the region but for the EU’s credibility itself. Read more here.
Source: BCSDN