{"id":453260,"date":"2026-05-13T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/13\/laccusa-di-european-civic-forum-le-politiche-dellue-restringono-lo-spazio-civico\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:35:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:35:57","slug":"european-civic-forum-says-eu-policies-are-shrinking-civic-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/13\/european-civic-forum-says-eu-policies-are-shrinking-civic-space\/","title":{"rendered":"European Civic Forum says EU policies are shrinking civic space"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Conditions for the development of the “civic space” in Europe have deteriorated, according to the latest <\/span>report by the European Civic Forum<\/a><\/span>(ECF), published in May 2026. The CIVICUS Monitor, <\/strong><\/span>an overall assessment index<\/a><\/strong>, has downgraded the assessment of civic space in France, Germany, and Italy from “narrowed” to “obstructed<\/strong>.” The decline is steady: in 2019, 58.3 per cent of the population of Europe and Central Asia lived in countries classified as “open” or “narrowed.” By 2025, that figure had fallen to 26.5 per cent.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 In last year\u2019s report, the Forum \u2013 which is co-funded by the European Union \u2013 highlighted that developments at the EU level were increasingly affecting civic space across Europe, often negatively. “The interplay between EU and
\nnational policies is clear: <\/span>restrictions in member states
\nare reinforced in Brussels, with EU-level measures
\nlegitimising crackdowns on civil society\u200b<\/strong>“, said Aarti Narsee<\/strong>, senior policy officer at the European Civic Forum.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

The report claims that some MEPs are \u201cfuelling suspicion towards NGOs (non-governmental organisations), making unfounded allegations of misuse of public funds and setting up a <\/span>scrutiny working group<\/a><\/span> in the European Parliament.\u201d The group was established in June 2025 and is tasked with examining EU funding to NGOs, with the support of the European People\u2019s Party (EPP), the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Patriots for Europe (PfE). “Civil society has condemned the working
\ngroup as part of the ongoing delegitimisation of their work, while a
\nEuropean Court of Auditors report found
\nno evidence of irregularities or misuse of EU grants,” the report explains. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The ECF\u2019s work \u201chighlights a new push within the European Parliament to institutionalise harassment of NGOs\u201d, said<\/span> Natacha Kazatchkine<\/strong>, Secretary-General of the European Civic Forum. By 2025, restrictions on civil society had become institutionalised<\/strong>. Restrictive models, the report explains, \u201care increasingly being adopted, legitimised and reinforced at European Union level.\u201d According to the report, similar trends have been observed in at least five EU countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, and Slovakia. For example, in Austria, the far-right Freedom Party (FP\u00d6) has launched a parliamentary inquiry into funding for NGOs. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The report also focuses on the criminalisation of protest movements, \u201ca practice that is becoming increasingly widespread across Europe. In 2025, new restrictive laws were proposed or passed in seven EU countries, exacerbating an already alarming situation,\u201d according to the authors of the report. In Italy, the security decree, which civil society organisations “say is the greatest attack on protest rights in the history
\nof the country, introduces new criminal offences and
\nexpands police powers to restrict protest.\u201d Italy was included on the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist in 2025.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The first <\/span>Strategy for Civil Society<\/a>, published by the EU at the end of 2025, fits into this context. The plan sets out a framework for supporting, funding, and protecting non-profit organisations and human rights defenders. The European forum, however, remains sceptical. \u201cWhile EU institutions have become more aware of the importance of protecting civic space, their policy responses remain contradictory,\u201d according to the report. Indeed, alongside initiatives such as the proposal to increase funding for organisations promoting democracy in the EU\u2019s next long-term budget, restrictions on civil society’s work have remained unchanged.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CIVICUS Monitor, a global assessment index, has downgraded the rating of the civic space in France, Germany and Italy from \u2018narrowed\u2019 to \u2018obstructed.\u2019 The decline is steady: in 2019, 58.3 per cent of the population of Europe and Central Asia lived in countries classified as \u2018open\u2019 or \u2018narrowed\u2019. By 2025, that figure had fallen to 26.5 per cent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7911,"featured_media":453142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788],"tags":[26180,29452,34070,34071,26130,34072,33394],"class_list":["post-453260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","tag-societa-civile-en","tag-decreto-sicurezza","tag-european-civic-forum","tag-rights-en","tag-spazio-civico","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453261,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453260\/revisions\/453261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}