Democracy needs civil society: End FGM EU joins call to strengthen CERV+
End FGM EU has joined 31 European civil society organisations and networks in calling on the Council of the European Union to strengthen, not reduce, funding for AgoraEU, including the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV+) programme, in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
In this letter, we call on the European Council, the Council of the European Union, Member States, and all decision-makers involved in the MFF negotiations to reject to reject the proposed €300 million cut (4%) to the AgoraEU programme and instead support increasing its budget to €10.72 billion (only 0.5% of the entire MFF), in line with the European Parliament's position. The signatories also call for maintaining the proposed share dedicated to the CERV+ strand, recognising its essential role in protecting democracy, fundamental rights, equality and civic participation across Europe.
The European Commission's own evaluation shows that CERV is effective; it simply lacks sufficient resources to respond to increasing needs and fulfil all its objectives. Under previous calls, up to 92% of proposals were rejected despite receiving high evaluation scores, reflecting insufficient funding. As the Commission noted: "many excellent applications cannot be funded due to budget limitations."
The EU's core values are under growing pressure as civic space shrinks and civil society faces increasing attacks and funding cuts. At the same time, the EU has adopted new strategic measures to strengthen democracy and fundamental rights, but delivering on these priorities requires a stronger CERV+ budget.
