Improving the EU’s Support for Civil Society in Its Neighbourhood

This study reviews the ways in which EU provides support and cooperates with civil society in its neighborhood and provides a diagnosis of EU-civil society relations by paying specific attention to EU’s assistance procedures for CSOs. It examines furthermore each support mechanism and provides conclusions and recommendations for further improvement of EU’s record of promoting a better environment for the civil society in EaP countries. The study concludes that despite recent improvements in developing better environment for CSOs, still a lot has to be done. EU needs to think long term and embark on a proactive strategy of turning civil society in neighboring countries into a real reform partner. This entails to better include CSOs in the EU-partner countries dialogue and policy process, to better monitor civil society’s situation in partner countries, to pay increased attention to the regulatory framework and effectively applying targeted conditionality.

The study is developed by IRIS (Institut de Relations Internationales et Strategiques) and can be downloaded here.  

Source: BCSDN E-Mail Alerts nr. 254