Guidelines for Support to Civil Society in the Enlargement Countries: Outcomes of Online and National Consultations May-June 2013

The European Commission’s (EC) DG Enlargement is in the process of developing guidelines for support to civil society in the enlargement countries for the period 2014-2020. Consultation on the first draft of the guidelines took place in Brussels on 25 and 26 April 2013 with invited stakeholders representing civil society, government offices for cooperation with civil society and EU Delegations in the region. Based on stakeholder input at the Brussels event, the draft guidelines were revised and published for broader consultation online as well as at national consultation events. On 14 June, 2013 BCSDN submitted its comments on the DG Enlargement’s draft Guidelines for EU support to civil society in enlargement countries, 2014-2020. This week the DG Enlargement published the outcome of this second round of consultations. BCSDN’s comments were acknowledged by the DG Enlargement in the first four points of the consultations outcome document and were said to be reflected in the draft guidelines. The outcome of the consultations can be downloaded here as well as the second draft of the Guidelines here. Also, view BCSDN’s original comments on the guidelines here. DG Enlargement is still open for comments on the Guidelines till August 2013.