European Union contracted the new support for civil society in Serbia, worth 2.5 million euros.
Over the next three years, this financial support, in the form of five grants, will fund projects focussed on:
(1) building policy dialogue between the state and CSOs (EUR 1.5 Million). The grant aims at building capacities of all sides of the policy dialogue (including authorities) and allows individuals and small size civil society organisations to benefit from EU support through an easier and highly flexible mechanism.
(2) strengthening civil society’s capacities for comprehensive monitoring reforms in Rule of Law (EUR 1 Million).
“Civil society is the heart of every democracy and as such it lies close to the heart of the EU. In Serbia the European Union has been supporting civil society organisations for more than two decades and so far this supports amounts to over EUR 60 million. With this new support, the goal is to strengthen civil society’s capacities for policy formulation and communication on policy dialogue between civil sector and public authorities. The civil sector and the public authorities make the two pillars of the same bridge and therefore the dialogue and close cooperation between them is an essential element in quality and inclusive policy-making process”, said Sem Fabrizi, Ambassador of the European Union to Serbia.
Awarded projects of this call, involving over 15 lead and partner organisations, will be focusing on civil society’s capacities in the areas of the rule of law, public administration, fight against corruption, e-governance, urban and spatial planning and will be further allocating part of the funding towards smaller initiatives and projects in the coming months.
Details on the grants and the beneficiaries can be found here.