Friday 31 October 2014

Is Civil Society Development in the Enlargement Countries becoming increasingly important to the European Commission?

With the Enlargement Strategy 2014-2015 and the country Progress Reports recently being published, Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) has for the 6th time analysed how the European Commission has treated the issue of civil society development and assessed the progress made in the Enlargement countries.

In short, the European Commission is starting to use more clear, strong and focused language in highlighting the importance of a developed civil society in enlargement countries. Also for the first time EC has unified its approach towards the issue: there is now a separate civil society section within the political criteria in each country report. Considering this, and what are the key messages to the Governments and how they are delivered, it seems civil society development is becoming a necessary component for achieving sufficient fulfillment of the Political criteria - thus, a possible benchmark for negotiations.

The full analysis by BCSDN can be found here.


For further inquiries please feel free to contact Ms. Biljana Stojanoska of BCSDN.


Information provided by BCSDN

No comments: