Civil Society Under Attack: Europe’s Backbone Fights Back
Friday, 24 April
17:45 – 19:15
Across Europe, civil society organisations are the target of coordinated and sustained attacks. These pressures ultimately aim to push Green and progressive CSOs away from advocacy goals into depoliticised, technocratic, and sanitised roles. Yet whether it serves as an arena for real representation and participation, or fills the gaps left by retreating public institutions, a strong civil society is the very prerequisite of a thriving public space. Undermining its role means hollowing out democracy itself at a time when it’s already under threat.
This plenary brings together civil society leaders, Green politicians, activists and thinkers to ask: how is political pressure affecting the power, agency, and influence of civil society today? What battles lie ahead for Green and progressive CSOs as democratic space shrinks? And how can civil society reclaim its role as a political actor, strengthening collective voice and capacity to act?
Guest Speakers
Rosa Martínez, Secretary of State for Social Rights, Spain
Rosa Martinez Rodríguez is Secretary of State for Social Rights in the Spanish Goverment. She is currently member of the Green European Journal, being involved with the Green Movement since 2011. As member of the Spanish Parliament (2015-2019) she worked on energy, industry and climate policies. After that, she worked for the European Climate Foundation.
Stefanos Loukopoulos, Co-Founder & Director, Vouliwatch
Stefanos Loukopoulos is co-founder and director of Vouliwatch, Greece’s leading democracy watchdog – an organisation built to defend civic space and democratic accountability in one of the European countries where both have been most aggressively contested. Over the past decade, he has led campaigns and advocacy efforts that directly shaped landmark Greek legislation on lobbying regulation, asset declaration disclosure, and access to information, demonstrating that civil society can move the needle even under sustained institutional pressure. A founding member of the international Parliamentwatch Network and the Greek Civil Society Alliance, Stefanos is currently an active member the Working Group which drafted and is now implementing Athens’ first Open Government Partnership Local Action Plan. Before Vouliwatch, he worked with NGOs in London and Brussels and in the European Parliament. He holds postgraduate degrees in International Relations and International Conflict Analysis.
