In June 2014, more than 40 EU staff from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific met in Brussels to exchange ideas on how best to prepare their first "EU Country Roadmap for Engagement with Civil Society", due by the end of July 2014.
The elaboration of the roadmaps was envisaged by the EC Communication (September 2012) on "The Roots of Democracy and Sustainable Development: Europe’s Engagement with Civil Society in External Relations" in order to develop a common strategic framework for the engagement of EU Delegations and Member States with civil society at country level, with a view to improving the impact, predictability and visibility of EU actions. The process was formally launched in January 2014 and involves a number of stages, including: analyzing the legal and regulatory environment, evaluating the state of local civil society and the current level of EU engagement, setting EU priorities and actions, and monitoring.
At the seminar the participants were talking about the importance of providing ongoing feedback to civil society organizations and the bases of the development of the roadmaps. Participants also discussed how to evaluate whether a country has an enabling environment for civil society as one of the main issues analyzed in the Roadmaps.
ECNL delivered a presentation to the EU Delegation on this topic telling more about the different factors which the enabling environment depends on measured against international standards, how they are violated by governments and what CSOs can do when the environment is not supportive.
In an interview for Capacity4.dev.eu ECNL Executive Director highlighted that:
“Oftentimes we will have situations when the governments will consult groups who are closer to them and say ‘yes, we did a consultation’, even though they have marginalized those who are really important in the process,” [….] “For the sector it’s important to speak about those cases and to point out those cases - to not allow for legitimization of the policy or the law, even when it is adopted.”
See the full interview:
The video has been featured on http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/article/roadmaps-engage-civil-society where you can find more information about the seminar and the Roadmap.