OpenLobby.EU
Explore

Ökotárs Alapítvány - Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation

HEPF

Az Ökotárs az állampolgári önszerveződések támogatásával kíván hozzájárulni egy demokratikus, fenntartható és igazságos társadalom és a nyilvánosság részvételén alapuló intézményrendszer fejlődéséhez.

Lobbying Activity

Response to EU’s next long-term budget (MFF) – EU funding for cross-border education, training and solidarity, youth, media, culture, and creative sectors, values, and civil society

19 Sept 2025

We warmly welcome the creation of the EU Agora programme including the continuation of CERV as a separate strand with a significantly increased allocation. CERV has made an essential contribution to promoting democracy, the rule of law and transparency across the member states by providing unique support to civil society organisations that work towards upholding these values, among others by standing up for and giving voice to the voiceless, advocating on behalf of vulnerable groups and issues of public interest. The significant overdraft on the current programme underlines the need for the increased budget in the coming period, and the merge with Creative Europe provides good ground for positive synergies and improved efficiency. Therefore, we strongly support the Commissions proposal and sincerely hope it will be adopted in its current outline at the end of the negotiations. Having said this, we believe the proposal could be refined in several respects: - Civil society participation and dialogue both in policymaking and implementation comprise a key component of good governance and can lead to better policies and more public assistance. CERV should acknowledge these as legitimate activities by explicitly supporting CSO engagement both on the national and the European level. Similarly, continuing the Civil Dialogue Group would be necessary as a mechanism to involve civil society in programme design and priority setting. - We consider it also important to increase the access of grassroots organisations, primarily by maintaining the re-granting component of CERV. On the other end of the spectrum, there is also need for continued support to EU-level cooperation and coordination to civil society via the multi-year operating grants. The simplification of administrative burdens foreseen is also an important step in the right direction, but in this respect, a reconsideration and decrease of the requested co-funding levels (<10%) would be desirable, too. - Lastly, as civil society is under increasing pressure in several Member States, CERV+ should further be used to finance the protection of organisations and human right defenders under attack by providing rapid mechanism to support acute needs (legal and or psychosocial aid, relocation, etc.) modelled e.g. on the existing ProtectDefenders system.
Read full response

Response to Mid-Term Review: Social Economy Action Plan

16 Jul 2025

I agree with and endorse the analysis and opinion provided by Philanthropy Europe Association, Philea, attached.
Read full response

Response to EU Civil Society Strategy

15 Jul 2025

A strong, diverse and independent civil society is an indispensable component of any healthy democracy, acknowledged by all major international institutions. Civil society organisations (CSOs) and informal groups/movements of citizens play a vital role in the promotion and application of universal and European values on the local, national and supranational levels, and are often the first and last frontier upholding and promoting respect for human rights, dignity, freedom, tolerance and solidarity. CSOs, as the organised part of the broader civil society are key channels of citizen voice, and act as a two-way link between the public and private arenas. They also perform vital functions in maintaining social inclusion, constructive dialogue and a healthy environment, and in our times of multiple crises, affecting the climate that sustains us, the integrity of our societies and our personal health these are more important than ever. In these respects, CSOs, community and citizen groups as well as social movements may be or already are important allies of the European institutions at times of escalating tensions with minorities, xenophobia, increasing levels of corruption, nepotism and weak democratic institutions in some Member States. Vice versa, CSOs look toward the European Union both as a supportive political actor and an important funder of their activities. But in order to fulfill its democratic roles and functions, as well as to secure safe space for citizens to exercise their freedoms, civil society needs an enabling environment to flourish. However, today contrary trends, the shrinking of civil space may be observed in more and more European countries, too, manifesting in vilification and smear campaigns, harassment and various legal restrictions hindering civic action. As Member States are largely free and have independent competence to design their own policies and strategies concerning civil society, EU institutions had relatively few effective instruments to counter the negative trends in spite of their concerns, and even these do not constitute a systematic approach, rather a piecemeal, case-by-case reaction to developments. Nevertheless, several recent developments demonstrate the increased attention by both the European Commission and the Parliament, manifesting e.g. in the inclusion of civil society in the annual Rule of Law report, the Strategy to strengthen the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the SLAPP Directive as well as several EP reports. The introduction of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values program is another important step in terms of giving greater support to civil society within the EU. However, none of the above address civil society per se or describe all the tools and instruments EU institutions, particularly the Commission, could employ and/or develop to strengthen and advance civil society across the continent. While such strategies exist in terms of the role of civil society in external relations, addressing the civil society matters in their entirety within the EU is also essential. The strategy should contribute to the visibility of the problems and put civil society on the European agenda, by emphasising its importance and determining the key points of action. In order to efficiently defend democracy and rule of law, civil society should become a protected European value and asset in its own right. A comprehensive strategy should describe, in a structured manner, an (as much as possible) complete array of measures and actions that are at the disposal of the Commission or can be developed to help CSOs in the EU to flourish. It should: - acknowledge the importance and the role of CSOs in upholding and promoting European values - review ongoing initiatives and processes that have a relevance to civil society identify gaps and shortcomings integrate existing, new and future tools to defend and expand civil space. See: https://civilspace.eu/en/strategy/fulltext
Read full response

Response to European Democracy Shield

26 May 2025

European democracy is under threat from inside forces and trends just as much as from the outside, seen in spreading populism, polarisation and a move to the far right in more and more Member States. In order to effectively strengthen democracy, the root causes of its decline must be addressed: foremost, the weakening public trust, coupled with social inequality and the lack of perspective for many. Therefore, security should be approached in a holistic manner, putting broad human dignity, collective freedoms and individual rights in centre stage. The Democracy Shield should be built on earlier work done in these areas, e.g. the European Democracy Plan, the Media Freedom Act, the Digital Services and AI Acts. Civil society is an important ally in achieving these objectives. Through bringing together citizens communities, channeling and amplifying voices and developing hands-on solutions on the ground, civil society organisations (CSOs) are essential components of democratic resilience. Often being the first and the last respondents, CSOs have shown during the recent crises their contribution to preparedness. Thus, the Commission should view civil society as a strategic partner throughout the whole process, not only as service providers, but also as active contributors to policy formulation, implementation, monitoring, and the defense of democracy. In order to fulfill their above functions, the Democracy Shield must include measures to create and sustain an enabling environment and civil space in Europe, among others through: the EDS should be developed in coordination and be aligned with the upcoming civil society strategy long overdue cross-border legal forms of associations and foundations should be created in order to achieve a real single market for the nonprofit sector civil space trends in the Member States should be monitored as standalone part of the Rule of Law dialogue mechanisms for early warning to flag civil space restrictions should introduced coupled with protection mechanisms for organisations and human right defenders under attack (similarly to those used outside of the EU) a structured and systematic dialogue with both citizens and their organisations should be developed and implemented at all levels of the EU institutional system (both horizontal and transversal) centrally managed funding schemes of CSOs and independent, investigative media engaged in upholding European values and defending democracy must be broadened, including but not limited to an upscaled and more flexible Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values program, also including funding of advocacy for better societal resilience, civic education, digital security and media literacy mus be promoted at all levels, through both designing programs and providing tailored support to CSOs working in the field a democracy impact assessment should be part of all European legislative processes, involving a strengthened Fundamental Right Agency in the exercise. This enabling European civil space must at the same time be inclusive, paying attention to the needs and circumstances of various vulnerable and minority social groups, too. The EDS itself should be a recognition of the value of civic and social organising. We are ready to continue working with you towards this end.
Read full response

Meeting with Klára Dobrev (Member of the European Parliament)

6 Dec 2024 · Situation of civil society

Response to European Media Freedom Act

20 Oct 2022

Our main concern is how civil society, its organisations and activities are presented in media, especially in Member States where civil space is shrinking and CSOs are under pressure. Government-controlled media in these countries is often the main vehicle that delivers smear campaigns against independent CSOs, employing distortions or downright untruths. We would appreciate that new rules on media freedom could address this problem, e.g. by mandating the new agency to monitor how media reports on civil society, include biased or distorted reporting on CSO activities among its concerns and/or be open and accessible to CSOs reporting such problems. Thank you.
Read full response

Response to European Democracy Action Plan

22 Jul 2020

Developing a European Democracy Action Plan is very timely and essential in order to sustain and broaden European cooperation based on the commonly accepted values of dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity the rule of law and respect for human rights in the face of current and increasing threats and pressures on democracy experienced in more and more Member States. We especially welcome the inclusion of the shrinking civil space phenomenon as a priority focus demanding response and action. However, as laid out in the current draft, we find the proposed measures in this regard too narrow in terms of both their scope and ambition: (1) The document seems to limit the role and contribution of civil society that merits support to a few specific areas (e.g. media literacy, cooperation among diverse actors), while civic organizations and citizen groups have much more versatile and broader functions in our societies. They perform vital roles in maintaining social inclusion, a constructive dialogue and healthy environment in our times of multiple crises, and are often the first and last frontier upholding universal and European values on the local, national and supra-national levels. EU institutions in general and the Commission in particular should consider civil society an ally at times of escalating tensions with minorities, xenophobia, increasing levels of corruption, nepotism and weak democratic institutions in some Member States. This should be better reflected in the plan and during designing the following steps. (2) Further, the document seems to consider support and financing as the main (and only?) measure vis-á-vis civil society. Admittedly, improved funding is crucial for civil society organizations – in this regard we would like to refer back to the numerous calls and earlier initiatives to increase the allocation of the new Rights & Values Program in the next MFF. Nevertheless, funding is by far not the only way to protect and broaden civil space. In this respect we propose the Commission to consider developing a comprehensive civil society strategy that explores to potential competences and tools EU institutions in general and the Commission in particular has at its disposal our could create. Such a strategy could include actions of: - creating a system of structured dialogue between the institutions and organized civil society, as well as strengthening civic participation in consultative bodies, particularly the European Economic and Social Committee - establishing a benchmark or common standards of promoting civil space, as well as a related early warning and response system to threats and restrictions targeting civil society organizations - easing cross-border operation ad movement of civil society organizations through new legal instruments, e.g. a European organization form - developing guidelines for Member States clarifying how to interpret properly EU law concerning money laundering and terrorist financing Finally, the Plan should also take into account how measures in other areas (e.g. support to citizen education, media ownership and balanced reporting, building on the work of the External Action Service) impact on civil society and contribute to countering shrinking space. We sincerely hope these suggestions can contribute to a more robust Action Plan, and would also like to draw your attention to our Recommendations for a Comprehensive European Policy and Strategy on Civil Society endorsed by more than a hundred organizations from all over the Union. Should you have any questions, please contact me - yours sincerely:
Read full response