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Civic Space in Europe 2026: Strasbourg conference sets the stakes
The International Conference “Shaping democratic renewal: civic space and the path to a New Democratic Pact for Europe” took place in Strasbourg on 2–3 February 2026, bringing together senior officials, government representatives, experts, and civil society from across Europe. In the opening session, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, set the tone for two days of debate on how to safeguard and renew democracy by protecting civic space.
Alain Berset warned that Europe is once again at a democratic “turning point”, recalling Václav Havel’s message that the continent always faces a choice between “responsibility or repetition”. He underlined that “civic space is where democracy breathes” and that Europe “will not be able to respond to disruption outside if civic space is shrinking within”, pointing to shrinking trust, disinformation, foreign interference, and AI-driven manipulation that make elections “easier to influence and harder to trust”.
With only 12 of 46 Council of Europe member states now considered to have open civic space, he presented the New Democratic Pact for Europe as a collective effort to turn “democratic anxiety into democratic capacity”, including new work on a convention on disinformation and foreign interference and on ensuring that migration and security policies remain anchored in the European Convention on Human Rights.
Michael O’Flaherty situated today’s challenges in Europe’s historical experience, speaking only days after visiting the Struthof Nazi concentration camp in Alsace. He described the camp as a “negative reminder” of the progress achieved since its closure and warned that attacks on civil society are part of a gradual “erosion of human rights, democracy and rule of law” with potentially “horrific and unimaginable consequences” if left unchecked.
Stressing that pressure on civil society “is not primarily about the organizations themselves” but about the rights of people “on the periphery, the margins of our societies”, he highlighted that only 18 of 46 Council of Europe member states now have open civic space and drew attention to converging problems: a deepening funding crisis, copy-cat “foreign agent” laws inspired by authoritarian regimes, and the exclusion of critical voices from policymaking through fast-tracked procedures and tokenistic consultations.
Restrictions, monitoring, and the digital civic space
Across several thematic sessions, participants took stock of the state of civic space in Europe, shared monitoring experiences and case studies, and discussed ways to respond. Civil society organizations and experts documented increasingly sophisticated restrictions, including tighter protest rules, misuse of anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism frameworks, and cuts or freezes in NGO funding, while also underlining the value of watchdog work, access to information, whistle-blower protection, and broad coalitions in defending democracy. Special attention was paid to particularly vulnerable contexts, such as human rights defenders in Ukraine and civil society organizations in countries facing “foreign agent” style legislation or criminalization of advocacy.
Sessions on monitoring civic space and on digital civic space highlighted both risks and opportunities. Representatives of civil society networks, the OECD, and Council of Europe expert bodies underlined the need for robust data, effective monitoring tools, and closer collaboration with women’s rights defenders, youth organizations, and umbrella NGOs. At the same time, speakers examined how technological change, social media platforms, and AI reshape public debate, pointing to the spread of disinformation and deepfakes, the erosion of traditional journalistic standards, and the dominance of profit-driven digital platforms, while also showcasing democratic innovations such as online participatory budgeting tools that can broaden participation when designed to be accessible, diverse and accountable.
From insight to impact: New Democratic Pact for Europe
In the final sessions, attention turned to strategic pathways for the New Democratic Pact for Europe and to how institutions can move “from insight to impact”. Speakers underlined that democracy “depends on the participation of civil society” and warned that it “suffers and could die” if governments and international organizations do not provide strong legal frameworks, secure and sustainable funding, and meaningful channels of participation at local, national, and European levels.
Proposals included reinforcing public service media, strengthening youth participation, building “unusual” coalitions across sectors, and creating a continent-wide capacity to monitor and respond to threats against civil society, while making full use of existing European legal standards and mechanisms.
A recurring message throughout the Conference was that each generation must renew democracy “in its own time”, and that today this renewal depends on keeping civic space open and vibrant. Participants called for turning the shared diagnosis of shrinking civic space into concrete action, so that Europe does not “surrender what makes democracy work” in an increasingly fragmented world order.
Hermínio Corrêa
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