News and updates from BCSDN and the region
Regional cooperation has been the cornerstone of our work, the reason for our existence – and this year, we are celebrating 20 years of eventful and successful collaboration! In the past two decades, as the landscape in which CSOs are acting has changed significantly, many obstacles have been overcome through joint actions and mutual support
Read more →BCSDN has successfully conducted a two-day research partners workshop in Belgrade, on 13-14 December. During the first day, our member representatives were exploring the topic of development effectiveness and building their capacities for strengthening and promoting cooperation for effective development. The regional training on effective development cooperation is part of the activities under BCSDN’s three-year
Read more →CIVICUS Monitor has launched the latest Global Data Report – People Power Under Attack. This annual report takes a closer look at trends and top violations to the civil rights in each of the 197 countries and territories monitored. Out of 54 countries monitored within Europe and Central Asia, civic space is rated as open
Read more →The 2021 EU-Western Balkans Summit organized by Friends of Europe took place on the 7 December. The Summit aimed to engage with themes such as sustainable recovery, trade and investment, youth issues, and the role of civil society to foster pathways to regional cooperation, resilience, and inclusion. BCSDN’s Executive Director took part in the session
Read more →The European Commission released its annual report on the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the EU. This is the first report following last year’s strategy to strengthen the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the EU, which announced annual reports with thematic focuses. The 2021 report focuses on the challenges
Read more →The latest results of the survey published by the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG) paint a negative picture of the European Union’s standing in the public perception of Western Balkans. While most of the citizens of the region still support the EU accession, they are increasingly sceptical that this will happen and the
Read more →A worrying trend of endangering the right to assembly and excessive use of force by the coercive apparatus has been observed in the past few weeks in Serbia. In mid-November, civil society concerns focused on the ban on rallies in protest of the arrest of civil activists who expressed their revolt against Ratko Mladic’s mural
Read more →In a letter signed by 53 CSOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, civil society has raised concerns about the difficult political situation the country has been faced with in recent months, the rising tensions, and even threats to the peace in the country. Noting that many uncertainties mar the negotiations on the future of BiH, the
Read more →The annual EU-Western Balkans Summit organized by Friends for Europe will take place virtually on Dec 7th. This year’s summit is moving from a problem-solving dynamic to asset-based approach focused on fresh policy perspective on how to strengthen and develop the Balkan region and close the gap to the EU. Titled “Shifting the narrative –
Read more →The world is becoming more authoritarian as non-democratic regimes become even more brazen in their repression and many democratic governments suffer from backsliding by adopting their tactics of restricting free speech and weakening the rule of law, exacerbated by what threatens to become a “new normal” of Covid-19 restrictions. For the fifth consecutive year, the
Read more →The GLOBSEC Vulnerability Index, measures vulnerability towards foreign influence in eight countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans region: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. The Vulnerability Index explores and displays the external authoritarian influence in countries, ranking it according to its own methodology. The Index assesses
Read more →The Gap Analysis of Whistleblower Protection Laws in the Western Balkans and Moldova, recently published by the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative (RAI), shows that overall, two whistleblower protection laws reflected substantial compliance with consensus standards – the laws of Kosovo and Serbia, and three had inadequate compliance – the state law of BiH, the law of
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