ROVEST Cluster Cluster ROVEST

Dear Gabriela ILIN, President of ROVEST Cluster,

We would like to inform you already at this stage that FRA will conduct a consultation about experiences on civil society space issues, during the month of September. All organisations registered in the FRP database will be able to participate in this online survey – every registered organisation will be able to fill the online questionnaire once. We are contacting you today to ask for your help to invite new organisations to register for the FRP database, so that they can also participate in this consultation.

This online consultation on civil society space will serve to inform FRA of the real-life situation of civil society organisations across the EU. The findings from this consultation will complement the Agency’s recent report on ‘Challenges facing civil society organisations working on human rights in the EU’. Results will be summarised in a short paper, which will be published on FRA’s website and shared widely with stakeholders and media. Notably, results will be presented at the European Commission’s Colloquium on Fundamental Rights in November 2018. The online questionnaire will be open from 1-30 September 2018.

New deadline:Only organisations registered in the FRP database by 31st August 2018 will be able to participate in the consultation. Please, could you kindly reach out to relevant organisations with the information that FRA will conduct this consultation, and invite them to register, so that they can also participate? http://fra.europa.eu/en/cooperation/civil-society/how-to-register. Feel free to use also the attached invitation letter by FRA Director Michael O’Flaherty.

1. 1)Firstly, please could you invite other relevant organisations to register for the FRP database? In reaching out to organisations, please consider that the FRP’s definition of ‘civil society’ encompasses beyond NGOs also trade unions, employers’ organisations, social or professional groups, faith communities, religious, philosophical or non-confessional organisations, and universities/academia.
2. 2)Secondly, if you are an umbrella organisation and your own organisation has affiliates in several EU Member States, could you kindly invite also your national organisations to register in the FRP database? Every registered organisation will be able to fill the survey only once, and therefore your organisation’s information from different Member States could not be captured otherwise.

Finally, we would like to recall that the FRP is not an ‘organisation’ and there are no ‘members’. We have seen on several occasions that organisations claim (on their website or letter heads) that they are ‘member of FRP’ or ‘member of FRA’. Please note that this is legally incorrect and we would kindly like to ask you to amend this.

Many thanks in advance for your kind support!

Waltraud Heller, for FRA FRP Team