The European Commission aims to “put forward a defence of democracy package to deepen the action under the European Democracy Action Plan to promote free and fair elections, to step up the fight against disinformation and to support media freedom and pluralism, including by developing civic space and citizen participation to bolster democratic resilience from within”.
Our partners from Civil Society Europe have recently published preliminary proposals from Civil Society.
The proposal includes the follwing aspects:
- Protection of civil society, democracy and rule of law
- Empowering civil society to act as watchdog
- Democratic engagement, participation and dialogue
- Promotion of democratic education
- Safeguarding Elections & tacking disinformation
As part of the Working Group on Civic Space, DARE network was contributing especially to the fourth aspect – democratic education.
However, developments in Europe, especially concerning the state of civic space, show that all these aspects need to be thought together. All actors working for democratic spaces and fundamental rights need to act together. Therefore, we thank Civil Society Europe for the initiative.
As a network for Education for Democratic Citizenship/Human Rights Education we take the challenge very seriously and feel obliged not to let up in our engagement for and with the many who are working for a democratic civic society locally, nationally and on a European level.
- Read the proposal here: PDF on Civil Society Europe’s website