Civic space in the Western Balkans and Türkiye is shrinking at an alarming rate. Governments across the region are introducing restrictive laws, curbing media freedom, and using financial and administrative pressures to silence civil society. Protest rights are selectively restricted, defamation is recriminalized, and SLAPP lawsuits are used to intimidate activists and journalists. With public funding for CSOs scarce and politically controlled, independent civic actors struggle to sustain their work, leaving citizens without key advocates for accountability and rights protection. As governments limit civic engagement while delaying or weakening EU-required reforms, public trust in the enlargement process erodes. Without a structured EU response to safeguard civic space, democratic backsliding will persist, undermining the credibility of EU accession.
BCSDN’s latest policy brief, The Missing Piece: Why Civic Space Must Be an EU Accession Priority, highlights the severity of these trends and calls for a stronger EU response to protect civil society as an essential pillar of democracy.
Key Concerns:
- A systematic attack on fundamental freedoms – Governments are enacting laws that stigmatize CSOs, limiting access to funding, and suppressing independent voices. The push for “foreign agents” laws and the criminalization of defamation further restrict civic engagement.
- Financial instability of CSOs – Public funding for civil society remains politically controlled, unpredictable, and insufficient. Restrictive tax and funding regulations make it difficult for CSOs to sustain operations, while bureaucratic hurdles discourage donors and limit independent financing.
- Weak institutional cooperation – Governments are excluding CSOs from policymaking, turning consultation mechanisms into mere formalities while failing to recognize civil society’s role in shaping democratic reforms.
What Needs to Change?
The EU must institutionalize civic space protections within the enlargement process. This means:
- Setting clear and enforceable civic space benchmarks in the accession process.
- Formally integrating CSOs into reform monitoring and decision-making.
- Ensuring long-term, flexible funding for independent civic initiatives.
- Holding governments accountable by linking democratic backsliding to political and financial consequences.
Without urgent action, the region risks further democratic decline, where fundamental freedoms exist only on paper. The EU must move beyond reactive responses and embed civic space protections into a structured, long-term enlargement strategy that reinforces democratic resilience and ensures a more inclusive process.
Read the full policy brief HERE.