ECNL hopes for better environment for Serbian civil society

Steps have been taken towards an improved relationship between Serbia’s government and its civil society sector.

An article on the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) website says that for several years, there had been “harassment and attacks on civil society organisations (CSOs) from both the legislature and the executive”.

In 2022, the Government signalled its intention to improve dialogue between the sectors and increase participation of civil society in decision making. A Council for Cooperation and Civil Society Development was then established in the country in September 2023, and met for the first time on 5 December.

ECNL supported the process of developing and launching the council, having received funding from the United States Agency for International Development and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, to support its work in Serbia.

ECNL says that it is “excited about the Council’s future work to genuinely support civil society development and dialogue with diverse sectors”.

Broader concerns

Despite this cause for hope, there are signs of ongoing hostility from the Government.

Three days after the new council’s first meeting, Katarina Kitanovic from Human Rights House Belgrade said that those defending human rights in the country “do not have public support from the state authorities”. Instead, the authorities were continuing “terrible attacks” against them, according to Kitanovic.

Similar concerns are felt across the region, such as in neighbouring Hungary. According to Philea, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on 18 January 2024 to express its concern about the further erosion of democracy in the country. That resolution also recognises systemic discrimination against civil society, as well as other groups such as academia and journalists, in the country.

And as Fundraising Europe reported earlier this year, CSOs in Hungary’s northern neighbour Slovakia are also facing several threats to their independence and funding from the country’s new government.

There is nonetheless some optimism for nonprofits in the region; last year Fundraising Europe highlighted a report suggesting that there was potential to nearly double the level of charitable giving in the Central and Eastern Europe.

Picture by ivalex on Unsplash