Last 18 June Civil Society Europe sent a letter signed together with 52 platforms of civil society organisations to the European Commission, the European Council, the German Presidency of the EU and the European Parliament ahead of the European Council meeting which discussed the EU Recovery Plan and the EU Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027.

In the letter we were asking them to ensure that:

• the recovery is rights-based by strengthening the place human rights occupy in our societies, starting by giving a more central focus to the equal enjoyment of social, economic, and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights;
• the proposed measures part of the Recovery Plan duly take into account the urgency of supporting the civil society sector by making sure that support to governments is used to maintain and reinforce public funding to NGOs for both service delivery and advocacy work, and that the eligibility criteria of the calls for the new instruments explicitly include not for profit organisations as eligible funding recipients;
• the relevant funding programmes within the future MFF, and in particular within sub heading 7 of Cohesion and Values, are allocated an adequate budget envelope. This funding should be targeted to benefit civil society organizations which work to promote and realise EU values at national and local level, supporting their work beyond short-term project grants;
• the establishment of a dialogue with civil society organisations in the context of the implementation of the Recovery Plan and the negotiations of the future MFF.
• •  

Please find below the responses that we have received to our letter:

Cabinet of the European Council President, Mr Charles Michel

Vice President of the European Commission, Vera Jourova on behalf of President Von der Leyen

President of the European Parliament, Mr David Sassoli