Tanya Cox
Director at CONCORD
There has been one setback after another for civic space in the EU over the course of 2023. I could cite – in no particular order – the EU Foreign Agents Law, which could impact non-EU sources of funding for CSOs. Or the fact that MEP Pieper is again trying to get a report through the European Parliament to ‘enhance’ transparency and accountability of NGOs benefitting from EU funding. Or the Code of Conduct (Rules of Procedure) in the European Parliament which are already having significant impacts on our members and partners in terms of who can meet with MEPs. And these are but three examples. At all levels in CONCORD, we have both witnessed and experienced a lack of transparency and a reduced willingness to engage with civil society in a meaningful manner.
We have, in civil society, traditionally relied on the EU as a champion of democracy (so as not to get confused with the new backsliding agenda of the Commission known as the ‘Defence of Democracy’ package!). Fundamental freedoms and civic space more generally have always been a core part of the EU’s values, written into the Treaties. That tide has been turning for a while now. But my concern is the following: is that tide turning into a tidal wave which risks submerging us?
Over the last year or so, elections in EU Member States have led to a hardening of right-wing policies and have increasingly brought the extreme right into power, and not just as a minor supporting party, but in some instances as the main political winner. Take the Netherlands as just one example – who would have thought? Or Sweden? Or Finland? Not to mention Italy and Slovakia. And with this swerve to the right comes the crackdown on civic space, and the hardening of positions on key topics such as migration (or the openness of the EU), security and defence.
I don’t want to sound paranoid, but it is time to get worried (if you weren’t already). This doesn’t bode well for the next European elections and the shape of the next European Parliament, nor for the shape and priorities of the next European Commission – a process which President Charles Michel is leading.
We can already get a glimpse of things to come via the Grenada Declaration – a two-pager full of threats, risks, challenges, tensions and aggressions. It reads as though the rest of the world has hatched a plot to ensure the downfall of Europe and we have to do everything in our power to resist!
The proposed strategic priorities for the EU for the next five years include security and defence, resilience and competitiveness, energy security, migration, to name just four of the six. But the well-being of people and the planet are nowhere to be seen. The notions of collaboration, of equality, of inclusion, of co-creating our future, of rebalancing power are nowhere to be seen.
So, will the incoming MEPs support democracy or undermine it? Will the future Commission put people at the heart of its policies or widen the gaps between the haves and the have nots? Will our future leaders and law-makers take seriously the very real threat which many current EU policies pose for the environment, for biodiversity, for the planet?
It seems to me that now is the time – as never before – for civil society to come together to shape the future Parliament’s and Commission’s priorities, to safeguard the gains made over the last few years and to ensure that civil society cannot be silenced, pushed aside or ignored. We stand ready to challenge the inward-looking and Eurocentric narratives encapsulated in the Granada Declaration with alternative paradigms. Before and after European Elections 2024, we will be working together with our members and partners to promote collaboration and equality over competition and discrimination, defend civic space and democracy against authoritarianism, and ensure the EU’s consistent action and financial commitment to reducing global inequalities without geopolitical strings attached.
CONCORD stands ready to work with our allies and partners and to join forces with like-minded organisations as we prepare for the institutional renewal in 2024.
It’s time for us to act!