The survey was conducted between February and April 2013. 119 CSOs from the ENV.net partners countries were interviewed and from their answers it emerges that CSOs play an important role  in their countries by taking part, in one way or another, to the following activities:

  • constant dialogue with relevant government institutions and local authorities
  • monitoring of the state of state of play of adoption and implementation of EU environmental standards
  • organisation of different events to create networks of CSOs and becoming more powerful in policy influence at country level
  • organisation of awareness/advocacy/lobbying campaigns to inform/educate the citizens, involve the media, influence the government decisions.

However they also meet some obstacles in their action, as the collaboration with government and local authorities is not always easy , their policy influence capacity sometimes is weak and it become also difficult to organise public campaigns to make awareness on citizens on environmental issues.

Some important experiences were collected from the survey. The following are the main findings and leassons learnt:

CSOs and the approximation to the environmental acquis process

Are CSOs following the on-going national progress toward the application of the EU environmental legislation (acquis) in the country?

What is the opinion of target CSOs regarding the actual status of the application of the EU environmental legislation (acquis) in the country?

What is the perception of target CSOs about the role they can have in the approximation to the environmental acquis?

Dialogue between CSO and national Government bodies

Is there cooperation/dialogue between CSOs and government bodies with regard to the implementation of CSO’s activities? 

What are the on-going CSOs initiatives towards the approximation to the Environmental acquis?

We would like to continue this mapping exercise to get always updated data also from other countries, not yet represented by the ENV.net partners. If you wish to give your support to this activity, please participate to the ENV.net survey by clicking here or share this link – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHYyQkRFa19tMXVHRnZtcnIwMldkY0E6MA  – with all your contacts!

If you have interesting links or documents to suggest to be included in our resource centre or events and other initiatives to be shared through our blog, please write or send them to ENV.net communication officer e.cerretelli@puntosud.org