Mandated by the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), the EU TACSO 3 project has been entrusted to support the review and organize the consultation process for the Guidelines for EU Support to Civil Society in the Enlargement Region for the period 2021-2027.

For this purpose, EU TACSO 3 is organizing country consultations in each IPA Beneficiary end of February and the beginning of March 2021.

Civil society, public authorities, donors and other stakeholders from the Enlargement Region (Western Balkans and Turkey)  are invited to take part in the discussion. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the events will be held on-line. The official language of the event is English. Simultaneous translation to country’s official languages will be provided.

Find bellow specific dates for your country consultation and the link to the registration form. Registered participants will receive the agenda and link to the online event.

• Bosnia and Hercegovina – Monday, 22 February 2021 at 14:00 – 16:30 CET  Link for registration
• Kosovo * – Wednesday, 24 February 2021 at 10:00 – 12:30 CET  Links for registration: ALB  | SRB
• Montenegro – Thursday, 25 February 2021 at 10:00 – 12:30 CET  Link for registration
• Turkey – Thursday, 25 February 2021 at 13:30 – 16:00 CET (15:30 – 18:00 hrs Turkey time)  Link for application
• Serbia – Friday, 26 February 2021 at 09:30 – 12:00 CET  Link for registration
• North Macedonia – 1 March 2021 at 11:30 – 14:00  CET  Link for registration
• Albania – Tuesday, 2 March 2021 at 10:00 – 12:30  CET  Link for registration

The agenda for each country consultation includes an introduction session, presentation of the draft Guidelines result framework and discussion session, followed by conclusions.

The Guidelines explain how the EU will support civil society in the Enlargement Region in the period of 2021 -2027, in particular through its Civil Society Facility.

They are intended for a three-fold audience:

• For EU staff: to assist them in preparing and implementing EU support to civil society in the Western Balkans and Turkey; in monitoring the effectiveness of the support; and in analysing the evolution of the IPA beneficiary state of affairs concerning civil society;
• For policy-makers and administrators in the Western Balkans and Turkey: to understand the standards towards which DG NEAR is aspiring in terms of IPA beneficiaries’ own support to civil society in the context of the EU enlargement – notably in terms of the enabling environment for stimulating participatory democracy and civil society involvement in public-policy making and the EU integration process;
• For civil society in the region: to know the standards towards which DG NEAR is working in terms of their capacity, effectiveness, resilience, independence and accountability.

The Guidelines, and in particular their results framework, provide concrete objectives, targets, indicators and benchmarks in support of these efforts.

The current Guidelines are based on the revision and updating of the Guidelines that have already been in place and used in the period 2014 – 2020. The revision of the Guidelines has been carried out in a participatory way. The previous version of the Guidelines and the first draft of the revised Guidelines’ result framework is available on www.tacso.eu. In December 2020,  EU TACSO 3 issued a call for written inputs for the revision from civil society organisations. In January 2020, a regional consultation for civil society and public authorities took place in Skopje.  After the country consultation, the Guidelines will be updated and launched at a regional event held later in spring 2021.

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.