The purpose of this activity was to address the challenges faced by the civil society sector, including the shrinking space and the difficult environment for their operations in the country.

In her remarks, the People’s Advocate emphasized the importance of creating an enabling environment for civil society and the need for concrete interventions to improve the situation. She highlighted that, despite progress, significant challenges remain for the sustainability and effectiveness of civil society in Albania.

To address these challenges in a thorough and institutional manner, Ballanca proposed organizing a specific meeting at the People’s Advocate’s office to dive deep into the issues brought up during the roundtable. The aim of this meeting is to incorporate the identified challenges and recommendations into the annual report of the People’s Advocate, which is subsequently submitted to the Albanian Parliament. This initiative seeks to ensure more effective oversight and long-term solutions for protecting the role of civil society in the country.

The discussion was organized as part of the project “C1-EU-NPA: Civil Society Platform for First Cluster Negotiations with the European Union,” supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Tirana. The event was attended by representatives from public institutions, field experts, members of civil society, and representatives from various embassies.

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