European institutions and international and regional human rights organisations emphasise the important role of civil society in safeguarding and promoting human rights and democracy. Yet civil society organisations (CSOs) face diverse challenges across the EU that hamper their ability to uphold human rights. FRA’s sixth annual update on civic space explores the challenges for organisations across the EU. There has been significant development since FRA began monitoring the situation in 2018, but CSOs remain under immense pressure. Abusive lawsuits and attacks against those involved in migrant search and rescue at sea are just some of the challenges identified. This report presents ways forward to protect civil society and human rights.

The country reports from EU Member States constitute the background material for a comparative analysis for the project  ‘Update on developments regarding civic space in the EU‘. The country studies were prepared by FRA’s research network, FRANET. 

CSD contributed to the report by carrying out the research in Bulgaria and producing a country report as background material for the comparative analysis.

The full report and all national background studies are available on the FRA website here.