{"id":3856,"date":"2020-05-04T15:32:16","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T13:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/?p=3856"},"modified":"2020-05-06T16:25:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T14:25:04","slug":"erosion-of-civil-society-space-across-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/democracy-europe\/3856\/erosion-of-civil-society-space-across-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Erosion of civil society space across the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Read Greenpeace’s submission to the European Commission’s public consultation on the rule of law here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Over the last years, fundamental rights and the rule of law have increasingly come under pressure in the European Union (EU). This has also impacted civil society organisations, which fulfil an \u201dessential\u201d watchdog role in our democracies, according to the European Commission<\/a>. In many EU countries, these organisations have been subject to smear campaigns and legal restrictions.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

This intentional \u201cshrinking\u201d of civil society space has become a trend that is not limited to a few countries but spans the whole of the EU. The trend has accelerated during the Covid-19 crisis, making it even more urgent for the EU institutions to act. 

This autumn, the European Commission will present the results of its new rule of law monitoring mechanism in a first Annual Rule of Law Report. The Commission acknowledges<\/a> that \u201c(n)o democracy can thrive without \u2026 an active civil society\u201d. It views civil society as an \u201cactor of the rule of law\u201d and recognises that \u201cattempts to weaken essential watchdogs such as civil society and independent media are warning signs for threats to the rule of law\u201d. It should pick up these \u201cwarning signs\u201d in its upcoming Rule of Law Report.

The Commission has asked for stakeholder input<\/a> on \u201cdevelopments on the ground in the Member States\u201d.
<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace\u2019s contribution provides both factual information on developments undermining civil society\u2019s role as an \u201cactor of the rule of law\u201d and recommendations on how the Commission can support civil society in this role. 

Read our submission to the European Commission’s public consultation on the rule of law here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the last years, fundamental rights and the rule of law have increasingly come under pressure in the European Union (EU). This has also impacted civil society organisations, which fulfil…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23,33,49],"p4-page-type":[17],"class_list":["post-3856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-democracy-europe","tag-democracy","tag-justice","tag-peoplepower","p4-page-type-statement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3856"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3866,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856\/revisions\/3866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3856"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=3856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}