Civic space update: Enabling civil society to uphold EU values and strengthen democracy

The EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) has documented challenges to civic space in the EU since 2018. According to the latest civic space assessment by FRA, published on 31 March 2026, civil society organisations (CSOs) across the EU are facing increasing challenges amid geopolitical instability, disinformation campaigns, and deepening social polarisation. Organisations report growing interference with the freedoms of assembly and expression, politically motivated funding cuts, and excessive administrative controls or audits. While EU Member States are taking steps to better protect and support civil society, there is a clear need for comprehensive strategies. The FRA report recommends a range of actions to protect and strengthen civic space, including improved monitoring of civic space developments, enhanced protection measures for civil society actors, ensuring that legislation does not disproportionately restrict civic space, securing access to funding, and enabling timely and meaningful participation by CSOs in policy making, law making, and human rights assessments. These findings are published as the EU begins implementing its first-ever EU Strategy for Civil Society, released by the European Commission in November 2025.

The collective report by FRA is accompanied by separate country overviews examining national approaches to civic space monitoring, participation, and protection. The country data was collected within the framework of FRA’s multidisciplinary research network, FRANET. The country study on Finland is a joint effort by the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University and the Faculty of Law at the University of Turku, which together form the national focal point of FRANET in Finland.