Protect and enhance the civic space in Europe to preserve fundamental rights and EU values and those who defend them.

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On a thriving civic space for upholding fundamental rights in the EU, NET4DEFENDERS aims to promote rights and values by empowering and reinforcing coordination and networking between key actors operating in the defense of the civic space -5 HR CSO from the Mediterranean area (Italy and Spain), continental region (France) and Eastern Europe (Slovenia and Poland), and ECF, as the most relevant EU network in the field-. To this end, NET4DEFENDERS is based on a comprehensive strategy including: 1. Capacity building to ECF members and national and local networks that the partners participate in, with the aim to empower civil society actors to work together at the local, national and European level for upholding fundamental rights. NET4DEFENDERS mixes national and European and offline and online training activities with the aim to promote mutual learning and develop synergies among the actors working to protect the civic space; 2. The development of a common methodology to reach sound evidence and comparable indicators into the monitoring of the state of the civic space in EU Member States; 3. Providing targeted support to CSOs and rights defenders under attack through a comprehensive protection action, creating and activating solidarity and protection hubs in Europe; 4. Raising understanding about the importance of the civic space and raise awareness of European tools for its protection, such as the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the annual rule of law report of the European Commission, at national and local level, promoting national dialogues and advocacy forums about the environment in which CSOs and rights defenders work. Additionally, NET4DEFENDERS proposes an ambitious communication and dissemination strategy focused on raising awareness about the state of the play of civic space and on opening a dialogue and channel with EU institutions to report on the state of civic space in NET4DEFENDERS countries and voice their concerns.