BCSDN’s latest policy brief highlights the alarming decline of civic space in the Western Balkans and Türkiye. Governments are enacting restrictive laws, curbing media freedom, and using financial and administrative pressure to silence civil society. Public funding for CSOs is politically controlled, unpredictable, and insufficient, while bureaucratic hurdles further limit independent financing. Moreover, governments are excluding CSOs from policymaking processes. The brief urges the EU to address these issues by setting clear civic space benchmarks in the accession process, integrating CSOs into decision-making, ensuring long-term funding for independent initiatives, and holding governments accountable for democratic backsliding. It stresses that without urgent action, the region risks further democratic decline, and civic space protections must be integrated into the core of the EU enlargement strategy. Read more here.
Source: BCSDN