CONCORD chief: EU policy on CSOs must go local

The European Commission’s policy on civil society organizations needs to trickle down from Brussels to delegations, CONCORD Director Olivier Consolo said during his talk with Devex Editor Rolf Rosenkranz at the 2012 European Development Days.

The commission issued the communication on the role of CSOs in development in September. CONCORD, the European confederation of relief and development nongovernmental organizations, welcomed the action, with Consolo calling the communication “one of the best papers” written by EU institutions on the subject.

What is important now, he said, is for EU delegations to fully adopt the policy and engage with CSOs in country.

“You need societies that move, that play their role [in development] at local level,” Consolo added.

Watch the conversation between Rosenkranz and Consolo on the challenges European NGOs face amid the eurozone crisis and in seeking funding with EuropeAid, part of a series of conversations we video-taped with global development leaders in the center of the action at last week’s EDD.

Check out our complete coverage of European Development Days 2012.