News and updates from BCSDN and the region
In the framework of the 2023 European Commission work program, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has called for empowering European civil society and involving all civil actors in designing EU policies. The EESC adopted a resolution containing its recommendations during its plenary assembly on 17 July. Despite the unparalleled situation, the EESC also
Read more →The study explores the implementation of the European Union (EU) Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders, which constitute the policy framework and provide the operational means for protecting human rights activists in third countries. The first part of the study, written internally, provides an institutional perspective on implementing the Guidelines. It assesses the development of the
Read more →Recently, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced that the EuroPride festival, which features a Pride parade, would not be held in Belgrade as planned next month. The reasons behind this are the “significant crisis in Kosovo “, depicted by economic problems and fears of clashes resulting from the threats from right-wing extremists. The organizers, CSO communities, and many
Read more →The European Policy Institute – Skopje has published its quarterly brief on the key developments concerning the rule of law in the light of EU accession in North Macedonia for the period of April – June 2022. The document includes monitoring the fundamentals of EU accession, including key developments in the functioning of democratic institutions, public
Read more →In the third episode of our podcast series- Explaining Western Balkans, BCSDN discusses the role of civil society in dealing with the ongoing society polarization concerning the so-called French proposal as a destabilizing factor. Civic space and the (imm)possibility of consolidation; how to protect it from narrowing, including the ongoing and aligned fears and hopes,
Read more →An OpEd published on the European Western Balkans by the Senior Event Officer within the External Cooperation and Events Team at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies goes into an in-depth analysis of the integration process of North Macedonia and Albania and the debut of the expression “start of a process of opening accession
Read more →BCSDN’s Serbian member Civic Initiatives launched the Video Tips section – a comprehensive multimedia library with a wide range of video tutorials and presentations on topics of CSOs’ interest. The video library offers various tutorials, from creating a communications strategy to instructions for preparing project applications for CSOs. In addition, a series of expert statements/presentations on topics
Read more →The new DG NEAR Guidelines for EU Support to Civil Society in the Enlargement Region 2021- 2027 are a vital document for promoting an enabling environment and supporting CSOs’ capacities and role in the development of the Western Balkans and Turkey and in the EU enlargement process. The revised Guidelines, published in May 2022, have solid
Read more →Partners Albania for Change and Development, the National Resource Centre for the Development of Civil Society of PA, and the Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) are pleased to present the ninth edition of the Monitoring Matrix on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development covering developments in Albania for 2021. The report shows new activities
Read more →The latest report from the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) shows that Civil society in Europe is still under pressure. Besides the EU Member States analysis of the legal environment and space of CSOs in supporting fundamental rights 2022, the report also includes a section on some of the candidate countries. The report that focuses
Read more →Serbian CSOs gathered around the “Three Freedoms” Platform urgently requested the Ministry of the Interior to protect citizens who were exposed to attacks from private security in Novi Sad, as well as to stop the application of repressive measures and excessive force by Ministry of Interior members. The Serbian CSOs demand activists to be provided
Read more →The newest edition of the European Commission Rule of Law Report overviews the positive and the negative key rule of law developments in the EU, with 27 country chapters in every member state. The report follows up on challenges identified in previous reports and observes issues such as public service media, the use of spyware,
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