Democracy Shield or a Sharper Sword? Why We Need Both (and more!)

By Alva Finn, Executive Director ELF and Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle, MEP (D66)

Recently, the European Commission dropped two policies we’ve been waiting for: the Democracy Shield and the EU Civil Society Strategy.

Earlier this year, we co-authored a policy briefing called The Conscience of Nations: Supporting Civil Society as a Champion of Liberty. Our message to liberals was simple: Step up! We need to champion civil society to defend liberal democracy, or Europe will end up an isolated little island of values, getting hammered from both inside and out. We laid out a clear roadmap for boosting civil society across Europe and beyond.

Where the Civil Society Strategy Lands (and where it misses)

The good news? The new strategy mentions a lot of what we pushed for: creating a regular platform for civil society, ramping up CSO funding, and making philanthropic activity easier. The Commission really delivered on the point of extra funding, including through the merged Agora EU fund and external action.

 But here’s the kicker: it totally skipped our explicit call for a dedicated European Commission Communication on strengthening civil dialogue.

What does that mean? While the strategy might support dialogue in different ways, it stops short of committing to the comprehensive communication or legislative proposal that civil society has been demanding for years. We need a binding, inter-institutional framework—one that guarantees transparency, timely information, and clear institutional responsibility. The strategy offers “guiding principles” for dialogue. Sorry, but that’s nowhere near a proper framework, leaving civil dialogue with Member States to the same chance or personal relationships as in the past.

Plus, where are the practical game-changers for financing? Our straightforward proposal for a uniform co-financing rate that would actually deliver for civil society is completely MIA. Additionally, while there is a dialogue which mentions philanthropy, there is no clear road map to a Single Market for Philanthropy. We hope that the Commission will take this dialogue forward as rapidly as possible given the dire financial environment facing civil society.

A Quiet Withdrawal 🤫

To make things even more frustrating, the Commission recently and quietly pulled its proposal for an initiative on European Cross-Border associations just weeks before publishing these documents—despite having the European Parliament’s backing!

A Not So Quiet Withdrawal

The EU’s new civil society strategy is a timely signal of support and recognition to civil society organizations in light of the shrinking civil society space and the attacks towards it from within the EU institutions, including the so-called Scrutiny Working Group solely focused on civil society grants. The liberals decided to take a stance against it and did not participate due to the undemocratic working conditions and the McCarthyism on which it was formed. Our Renew representative and the other pro-EU forces, walked out of the meeting as our demands on making the work of the committee itself more transparent were rejected by EPP and the far right.

The Verdict: Missed Opportunities

So, there are still some missed opportunities, and we see two big gaps:

There is still no dedicated Commission Communication on civil dialogue
A lack of binding commitments for Member States and the European Parliament.

This clearly indicates where our work needs to go next: more advocacy, sharper policy development, and a push for real teeth in the EU’s commitment to its democratic champions.