Since 2018, FRA has reported on civic space based on the perceptions and experiences of civil society organisations (CSOs) participating in the Fundamental Rights Platform. These reports place CSOs and their concerns at the centre, focusing on the regulatory environment, the availability and accessibility of resources, and incidents of attacks and harassment.

This report adds a new dimension by examining CSOs not only as stakeholders affected by civic space conditions, but also as active contributors to the democratic functioning of our societies (Chapter 2). It further highlights the efforts made by Member States to promote an enabling civic space and to protect civil society, analysing both overarching government strategies and targeted measures (Chapter 3). In addition, it deals with the frameworks, rules, practices and consultative structures that facilitate the effective participation of CSOs in policymaking processes (Chapter 4).

By broadening its scope, the report emphasises the role of CSOs as actors shaping and creating social realities, rather than viewing them solely as recipients of government policies and norms.

The data and information presented in this report stem from three main sources which informed the different parts to varying degrees.

Firstly, FRA’s research network, Franet, provided research on the enabling environment in all EU Member States, Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia. This information maps national approaches to civic space monitoring, participation and protection. All of the country research on civic space delivered by Franet is available on the FRA website. The research covers the situation up to the end of December 2024. These data primarily inform Section 3.1 on government strategies, Section 3.2 on targeted measures to promote an enabling civic space and protect civil society and Section 4.1 on rules and practices to support participation at the national level.

The questionnaire for Franet included the following questions:

• Monitoring and reporting on civic space
  
  • Has there been any initiative from the side of the State (government/parliament) to observe/monitor the restrictions/challenges/threats for civic space actors in your country in the last three years?
  • Has there been any other actor/body/mechanism that has observed/monitored civic space restrictions/challenges/threats in your country in the last three years?
• Participation
  
  • Are there any binding rules in place in your country for the participation/consultation of civil society organisations for developing/implementing/monitoring laws and policies? This could be a regulatory framework, or a targeted policy, or guidelines.
  • Are there any consultative/participatory bodies in your country that ensure the participation of civil society in developing/implementing/monitoring laws and policies?
  • Does your Member State fund or carry out meaningful awareness raising and/or capacity building to support participation in your country?
• Enabling environment and protection
  
  • Does your country have a general civil society strategy / civil society development strategy in place?
  • Is there a dedicated policy/framework (or support measures) in place in your country to enhance and protect an enabling environment for civil society to work on fundamental rights?
  • Is there a dedicated law (and/or guidelines) in your country dealing specifically with the recognition and/or protection of human rights defenders?
  • Is there any dedicated support/funding by the State for the protection of (individual) human rights defenders in your country?
• Promising practice: Please highlight one specific practice that you consider a promising practice on civic space in your country – in the area of civic space including monitoring, participation, enabling environment, and protection? (optional)

Secondly, an online consultation captured the experiences and perceptions of CSOs in 2024. These consultation data primarily inform Chapter 2 on challenges faced by civil society organisations. Since 2018, FRA has consulted key players in civil society annually on their experiences relating to civic space through its Fundamental Rights Platform. In total, 453 CSOs working on fundamental and human rights in the 27 EU Member States, Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia responded to the latest online consultation, which was open from 26 February 2025 to 7 April 2025. The majority of responding organisations (60 %) work at the national level, 22 % are primarily active at the local level and 18 % of the responding organisations work at the EU/international level. They work in a range of areas, including advocacy, campaigning and awareness-raising, service provision, community engagement, victim support, research and data collection, and litigation. Most respondents (almost 90 %) are NGOs; the remainder are social or professional organisations, faith-based organisations or trade unions. Responses were received from all EU Member States except Luxembourg, with response rates ranging from 1 responding organisation in one Member State to over 20 in 6 other countries.

The questionnaire comprised the following sections.

• About your organisation.
• Situation of civil society organisations: general conditions and concrete experiences.
• Access to finance and other resources.
• Experiences of threats and attacks.
• Impact of attacks and reporting.
• Enabling regulatory environment and laws.
• Access to decision-making processes and participation.
• Closing questions.

The full questionnaire is available on FRA’s website. For details of results and findings, see ‘Summary of key findings from FRA’s civic space consultation covering 2024’.

Thirdly, this report was also informed through desk research, interviews and stakeholder meetings for a number of purposes. First, to identify the ways in which civil society and an enabling civic space contribute to democracy and democratic resilience (Chapter 1); second, to provide a more detailed overview of challenges for CSOs (Chapter 2); third, to identify monitoring and reporting efforts undertaken by independent public bodies and civil society initiatives to monitor, protect and empower civic space (Chapter 3); and finally, to frame Chapter 4 on frameworks for the effective participation of civil society organisations in policymaking processes. Additional sources of information included exchanges with intergovernmental organisations and participation in conferences, workshops and focus group discussions with civil society representatives, think tanks and NHRIs. Desk research drew on sources available up to January 2025.