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Statement issued by the Civil Society Europe, signed by Ökotárs among 570+ CSOs. Full text of the statement:

Az Európai Bizottság közzétette 2025-ös munkatervét, amelyben szerepel, hogy még idén EU-s stratégia születik a civil társadalom támogatására. Egy uniós civil stratégia lehetőséget ad a civil társadalmat uniós szinten is érintő negatív trendek megfordítására és a társadalmi részvétel pilléreinek a megerősítésére.

Following approval by the US Embassy in Budapest, the decision on the applications received for the 3rd call for proposals has been made by Mérték Media Monitor and the Ökotárs Foundation.

We take a review of ongoing EU policy initiatives of recent years that are relevant to civil society. The event is part of the Hungarian Civil EU Presidency.

Civil society organizations are often stigmatised for their engagement in public affairs. They are harassed by authorities to keep active citizens in uncertainty and fear. Thie same is happening now with Átlátszónet and Göd-Ért Association. We stand by our gratees, and give them all the help they need.

We held a commemorative gathering to mark the tenth anniversary of the illegal house raid at Ökotárs to raise awareness of the shrinking civic space in Hungary over the past ten years and to thank our colleagues for their dedicated work.

The Grant's purpose was to enable media professionals to produce new, high-quality content, get more professionalized, implement their ideas to a high technical standard and secure their operations from both a legal and administrative point of view. 

Democracy and civil society have a two-way relationship. One the one hand, civil society through its diverse roles is an important contributor to upholding and improving democracy: its organisations (CSOs) act as channels and facilitators of citizen engagement, participation and activism, help educate the younger generations and provide services to vulnerable groups so that they can too practice and enjoy the fundamental and human rights that are due to all of us.

STATEMENT UPR Pre-session on

HUNGARY

Geneva, 6-7 October 2021

Delivered by: Ökotárs – Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation

1. Presentation of the Organisation

Ökotárs Foundation welcomes the decision of the  National Tax and Customs Administration to close the year-long investigation in the absence of crime related to the EEA/Norwegian NGO Programme against the foundation and 17 of supported associations and foundations by it.

Contrary to the Prime Minister's Office's announcement, the Constitutional Court's five-member council have not decided on the 5th of October 2015 whether the investigation of the Government Control Office (GCO) regarding the EEA/Norwegian NGO Programme was legal or not. The Court examined only the availability or absence of an effective legal remedy against the process and decision of the GCO.