EU Civil Society Strategy: ClientEarth contribution to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence
On June 2025, the European Commission opened a public consultation on the upcoming EU Civil Society Strategy, expected for third quarter 2025. This strategy should provide a comprehensive framework for action at EU and Member State level to strengthen meaningful engagement and provide support to all civil society actors.
ClientEarth welcomes the European Commission’s proposal to drawn up an EU Civil Society Strategy, which is a much-needed step to acknowledge civil society not merely as an implementer of policies but as an active partner, and to better support and protect civil society actors with the tools and resources they need.
In its contribution to the public consultation, ClientEarth provides a comprehensive overview of the deteriorating conditions faced by civil society organisations (CSOs) in the European Union (EU), particularly those working in environmental, human rights, and democratic areas. Our contribution also includes concrete proposals and key initiatives that could be incorporated into the future European strategy.
While CSOs play a vital democratic role in representing marginalized voices, ensuring transparency, and contributing evidence-based input into policy-making, they are increasingly under threat due to legal restrictions, strategic lawsuits (SLAPPs), financial instability and exclusion from decision-making processes, both at the EU and national levels. Our contribution outlines alarming trends such as criminalisation of peaceful protest, surveillance, unlawful restrictions on transparency and unbalanced consultation processes that favour corporate interests over public-interest representatives.
To remedy this, we would like to call for more equitable and transparent access to decision-makers, simplified and accessible funding mechanisms and structural protections for CSOs and environmental defenders. Protecting and empowering CSOs is not only a legal obligation under the Aarhus Convention and Article 11 TEU, but also a democratic necessity to uphold the EU’s core values of transparency, public participation, and the rule of law.
