Since 2005, CONCORD has been monitoring the relation between EU delegation and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in partner countries.
Through concrete examples of experiences provided by individual CSO members, our past studies focused mainly on the funding relation at delegation level and EC grant compliance issues. In the last two years, the EU has stepped up its efforts to include CSOs as development actors in their own right through notably an increased dialogue concerning policy and programming of EU development aid and has made some other clear commitments in the Communication and subsequent Council Conclusions ‘The roots of democracy and sustainable development: Europe’s engagement with Civil Society in external relations’. In light of these strategic shifts, the 2014 report should look at the implementation of this new framework through an in-depth analysis of the overall engagement of EU Delegations with CSOs regarding the political dialogue, the programming processes as well as the contracting & compliance processes.