Civil society – Page 12

What does the EU consider citizens rights to be?

Democracy „the Hungarian way“ and Russia and Turkey as its role models is being discussed for quite some time now, and it raises conserns among civil society organizations in Europe, especially having in mind recent events in Hungary. Meanwhile, the EU does not have this concerns in mind – they want the new commissioner for…

Hungarian police raided the offices of two NGOs

epa03621518 A Member of the European Parliament raise his hand in a voting during the plenary session in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, 13 March 2013. The European Parliament rejected the compromise of EU governments for the financial planning of the European Union until 2020. EPA/PATRICK SEEGER

On Monday morning 16th Hungarian police raided the offices of two NGOs, DemNet and Ökotárs, seizing computers and accusing them of financial wrongdoing. The raid comes after similar sweeps in May. A few weeks after the prime minister declared that liberal democracy is over in Hungary and Putin’s methods should be precedent, police raids started.…

Croatia’s first civil union registered in Zagreb

The very first civil partnership was formed in Croatia, under the life partnership legislation, on Friday evening when two men were registered as civil partners of each other at a ceremony in Zagreb. Public Administration Minister Arsen Bauk, who confirmed the news about the first civil union just before the start of the Social Democratic…

Stop Targeting Civil Society in Hungary!

epa03642358 A Chinese technician debugs a row of video surveillance cameras for pubilc safety which are assembled on a pole in the Qingdao city, eastern China's Shandong province, 27 March 2013. China's public safety budget reaches at 128.989 billion yuan (Euros 16.227 billion) in 2013, up some nine per cent compared to last year, according to the Ministry of Finance. EPA/WU HONG

Since its re-election, the Hungarian government launched a campaign attacking the credibility of Hungarian NGOs and is striving to gain control over their funding distributed independently from the government. We believe that a dynamic and independent civil society plays a fundamental role in a democratic society, as it is one of the key checks and…

What we achieved in 2013?

It was the beginning of 1999 when we met at the strategic planning workshop for the upcoming parliamentary elections and one of the tasks we got from the workshop leader was to design and edit the centrefold of a daily newspaper for the day after the elections. We liked the task and teams showed exceptional…

Social Europe – strategic investment, not cost!

„Unlike the American Dream, the European Dream was a guarantee that you will not fall through the safety net and end up existentially endangered, even if you were not the best. Today, the European Dream is endangered by austerity measures and policies based on the assumption that investing in people is an expenditure we cannot…