The Commission’s new Strategy for Civil Society was published today. It was long-awaited and followed years of discussions with Liberties and other civil society organisations. It includes some important components, but concrete steps to protect civil society under threat have been pushed further down the line. Commissioner McGrath highlighted that civil society “keeps democracy alive from the ground up”. With increasing threats and no concrete protection, there is a risk that civil society will be irreparably damaged while further deliberation takes place.

The Strategy is structured under three pillars:

ENGAGEMENT: This pillar recognises the role of civil society in providing “advice, support and expertise in the development and implementation of EU legislation and policies”. It highlights existing tools and promises the creation of a Civil Society Platform in 2026. It also proposes 10 strong Guiding Principles for Dialogue with Civil Society. A principle on reprisals, however, is missing - no organisation should be penalised or threatened for engaging with the EU, and there should be a system to follow up on attacks.

PROTECTION: Here, the Commission proposes to map existing initiatives and create an online knowledge hub on civic space, which could inform the exploration of further protection mechanisms. In 2024, Liberties and other civil society organisations mapped the environment for civil society and human rights defenders in Europe and concluded that there is no comprehensive protection for civil society in the EU. The Strategy highlights ProtectDefender.eu, which supports human rights defenders outside the EU but fails to propose similar support within the EU. While recognising the importance of an enabling environment for civil society, there are limited measures to effectively safeguard this space, such as civic space impact assessments carried out by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and swift legal action when Member State laws violate EU law.

SUPPORT: This pillar echoes the strong proposal made by the Commission for the new Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF), which creates a new AgoraEU programme, with support for culture, media, and civil society increasing to an indicative budget of almost €9 billion. This is less than the 0.5% of the EU budget that we advocate should be dedicated to EU rights and values, but a significant and important increase. Emphasis is placed on collaboration with private donors and pro bono assistance, which is positive but limited.

While strong language is used to articulate the vital role that civil society plays in underpinning our shared democracy, steps to ensure this visibility are missing. As set out in Liberties’ paper, three key elements are missing in today’s strategy:

• Visibility, including responsibility for fundamental rights in the mandate of future Commission presidents and an EU-wide campaign on Article 2 values;
• A Protection Mechanism for civil society in the EU with sustained funding; and
• Clear steps to ensure an enabling environment, such as automatic civic space impact assessments carried out by the FRA and links to the rest of the EU rule of law toolbox.

Years in the making, the Strategy is a missed opportunity to propose concrete actions that will make a real difference to safeguard civic space and ensure that organisations are future-proofed against growing pressure from authoritarian governments.