As ECF celebrates its 20th anniversary, its mission is more important than ever

30 January 2025 | Op-Ed

2025 will mark the 20th anniversary of ECF’s founding. In 2005, representatives from civil society organisations across the continent gathered at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg to set up a network of CSOs. Their aim was to address the gap between citizens and EU institutions by bringing the voice of associations and NGOs to European debates and policymaking. Over the years, ECF has grown in size and mission, with nearly 100 member organisations across 29 European countries and a secretariat resourced with seven full-time members of staff embracing a diversity of cultures and forms of civic engagement. Together, we work to protect civic space, enable civic participation, and build civil dialogue for more equality, solidarity, and democracy in Europe.

At ECF, we’re going into 2025 proud of how far we’ve come and clear-sighted about the challenges ahead. This last month, the impact of 2024’s “year of elections” is already beginning to be felt. This is just one reason why we decided to suspend all activity on Twitter/X (you can find us now on Bluesky).

Meanwhile, at the EU level, European civil society organisations (CSO) are currently facing an unprecedented attack, spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by the far-right. These MEPs are intentionally spreading misinformation about and distorting the role of CSOs’ participation in policymaking. Within Civil Society Europe, the coordination of civil society at the EU level, we are organising to defend public funding supporting advocacy and civil participation, which is a key indicator of the health of democracy.

In 2025, we will continue our work on civic space, notably through our two projects. Through project Net 4 Defenders, we are working to foster a protection ecosystem for civil society and human rights defenders, by connecting and compiling existing protection services and advocating for the EU to establish a protection mechanism for civil society inside the EU. In March, the Monitoring Action for Civic Space project (MACS), will launch and pilot a new Early Warning and Alert System for civic space restrictions — stay tuned for more on this! And in May, we will publish the latest edition of our annual Civic Space Report, documenting last year’s developments across Europe.

The year we will continue our advocacy to ensure that EU files such as the European Cross-Border Associations directive, the Defence of Democracy package and the upcoming Democracy Shield reach their potential in supporting the work of civil society organisations, not hindering them.

In 2025, we will also have plenty of opportunities to come together as a network. In Gdansk in June, we will co-organise an event with our member the National Federation of Polish NGOs (OFOP),  within the Polish presidency of the Council of the EU, where we will have the chance to reflect on the role of civil society in our societies, within and beyond crises. And in November, we will renew the partnership with our Spanish member NOVACT to hold the eighth edition of the European Civic Academy — our annual event in which we connect and build bridges between civil society and academia.

When the ECF was founded, it was in response to a sense that institutions and governments were disconnected from the people and that more participatory forms of democracy were needed, to give people a say on decisions that affected their living conditions. Today, looking back at ECF’s journey over the last 20 years, we see that the ECF and its vision of democracy, which ensures the enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms for all is more important and more needed than ever. When trust and social cohesion have broken down and people are losing faith in democracy itself, it’s only by truly listening to people’s concerns — through various forms of policy, social and community dialogue — and addressing their needs through policies that ensure rights of all, that can institutions reverse this trend. We are here to stay and continue to bring our contributions to this goal!