Kutter, A. and Trappmann, V. (2010) Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe: the ambivalent legacy of accession

Given the particular incentives that the EU offered for the empowerment of non-state actors during pre-accession, it has often been assumed that EU intervention strengthened civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. We argue that, instead, the EU’s impact was highly ambivalent. Although the EU aid and EU-induced policy reform levelled the way for established actors’ involvement in multilevel politics, it reinforced some of the barriers to development that the civil society organisations face in CEE.