In a highly polarized and persistently divisive environment across the Balkans, numerous CSOs are continually struggling to keep the dialogue between and within communities alive, to continue building trust and solidarity across divides all the while working in a constantly shrinking civic space.
Through its Common Ground Program: Expanding Trust, Solidarity, and Dialogue in the Balkans, the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB) supports actors working to transcend boundaries and reduce tensions between communities and groups across the Balkans. The program is intended to counter political polarization and advocate constructive dialogue amid intensified divisions between people, communities, and institutions. EFB supports a cooperative partnership and a demand-driven approach.
Launched in January 2025, the Common Ground Program (CGP) is EFB's regional grant-making initiative dedicated to strengthening trust, dialogue, solidarity, and social cohesion across the Balkans. The program supports actors from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia who work to bridge divides, reduce tensions, and foster cooperation across ethnic, political, and social lines. CGP aims to counter polarization and foster constructive dialogue among communities, institutions, and citizens.
CGP supports the people and organizations who are already building common ground in their communities, often quietly and under difficult conditions. Throughout 2025, CGP’s participatory design phase brought together more than 45 civil society organizations and over 100 individual actors from across the Balkans.
Through reflective meetings, bilateral consultations, and an online survey, they shared their experiences and insights on what kind of support trust-building organizations in the region truly need. Their invaluable contributions helped EFB in building CGP’s strategic and operational framework, ensuring the program’s direction is grounded in local priorities, experience, and ownership.
CGP’s grant-making architecture unfolds through two complementary funding facilities:
- Core Programmatic Support Grants—annual, flexible core support for organizations’ ongoing programmatic and strategic work. Call for Applications for 2026 is now OPEN
- Rapid Opportunity Grants—smaller, rolling grants for timely and adaptive responses to emerging needs. [First open call expected in 2026]
Common Ground Program aims to achieve concrete outcomes:
- Providing vital contribution to organizational steadiness and resilience: grantees are supported to maintain staff, strategic focus, and program delivery with fewer disruptions;
- Timely responsiveness: grantees act early and appropriately when opportunities arise;
- Contributions to social cohesion: grantees are empowered to increase community-level trust, dialogue, and solidarity.
Through its regional grant-making facilities that support organizations working to sustain trust, dialogue, and social cohesion in the region, the EFB’s Common Ground Program contributes to a more stable, cohesive, and solidarity-driven Balkans—one where trust, solidarity, and dialogue transcend divisions.
Contact
European Fund for the Balkans: office@balkanfund.org
Common Ground Program: cgp@balkanfund.org
Miloš Ćirić, Program Manager: milos.ciric@balkanfund.org
Nemanja Georgijević, Program Officer: nemanja.georgijevic@balkanfund.org