Civil Society Organisations' Group adopts priorities for 2025-2028 term

The Civil Society Organisations' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted its priorities for the 2025-2028 term under the headline "Striving for sustainable communities, the beating heart of civil society and democracy". The following priorities are subject to review according to developments:

Empowering resilient communities by:

• amplifying community voices and increasing the democratic legitimacy of the EU;
• supporting bottom-up approaches;
• advocating a just demographic transition and intergenerational fairness;
• supporting an inclusive labour market and reinforcing the social economy as a key model of inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurship.

Defending democracy by:

• promoting participatory democracy and civil society engagement in EU policy-making in all policy areas, with a particular focus on youth engagement. This means working towards open, transparent, regular and structured civil dialogue, as set out in Article 11 of the Treaty on EU;
• ensuring that civil society is fully embedded in the EU agenda and can act as an early-warning voice in a rapidly changing world;
• stepping up outreach to young people and continuing to cooperate with civil society organisations at both European and national level;
• encouraging intergenerational cooperation.

Contributing to peace and a resilient civil society by:

• promoting EU values as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union;
• working towards the integration of civil society into preparedness, prevention and crisis-response strategies so that civil society organisations are equal partners in the civil preparedness framework;
• supporting efforts on civil defence, reconstruction and reconciliation;
• countering hybrid threats, disinformation and attempts to undermine democratic institutions.

Promoting a sustainable agenda by:

• advocating putting the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 for sustainable development and its sustainable development goals, as well as the European Green Deal, back towards the top of the EU’s policy agenda;
• committing to the sustainable agenda since this is the Europe’s best recipe for staying true to its commitments and values while enhancing prosperity, solidarity, equality, democracy and inclusiveness;
• supporting the European Commission’s efforts to address major gaps in environmental policy, particularly in water resilience, chemicals and the circular economy;
• championing an EU that leaves nobody behind, and working towards efficient solutions for the cost-of-living crisis, including the first-ever European Anti-Poverty Strategy;
• calling for the resubmission of the Directive on European Cross-Border Associations, which is essential to strengthening the European civic space.

Standing up for an EU 2028-2034 budget aligned with a clear European ambition, delivering for democracy, civil society and social inclusion, by:

• monitoring, contributing to and engaging with the discussions on the EU’s next long-term budget;
• promoting adequate and future-proof EU funding that supports core European policies for current and future generations;
• advocating dedicated funding streams that recognise civil society organisations as partners;
• ensuring the rigorous application of the partnership principle throughout the funding lifecycle.