Sixty years after the signing of the Treaties of Rome, Europe finds itself at a crossroads. Understanding what this wake-up call means for a liberal Europe was the subject of discussion at an international conference titled “Moving Forward with Europe!”.

Since the Euromaidan Revolution and with European Union’s support, Ukraine has made progress on implementing necessary reforms. However, in endorsing Ukraine, Europe and its member states made several mistakes. What are implications for the EU from the last three years of Ukraine’s transformation and the Minsk process? Which expectations has Ukraine failed to meet?

Interview with Irene Hahn-Fuhr, director of the Warsaw office, for German-speaking public about governmental policies, civil society and party scene.

On March 2-4, 2016, the South Caucasus Regional Office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation hosted the 5th International Gender Workshop Women in the Public Spaces: when Personal Becomes Political.

The forthcoming NATO summit gave opportunity to present  and discuss the recently published report, which examines perceptions of Russia by (non)governmental experts from six neighbouring countries regarding how NATO should respond to Russian actions, with an emphasis on how nuclear issues should be addressed.

Despite the unquestionable global progress concerning women’s autonomy, their human rights to decide freely and responsibly on sexual and reproductive health remain to an unacceptable degree unfulfilled. Therefore, this particular issue constituted the central theme of presentations at the Fourth International Gender Workshop in Warsaw. 

"The European Union cannot control the refugee influx without fair agreement with Turkey", Gerald Knaus, the President of European Stability Initiative think tank, for EurActiv Poland.

How EU's role will develop in both regional and global perspectives? The future of the European integration project  was discussed at the Vistula University during a seminar with Prof. Andrew Moravcsik, Paola Subacchi PhD., and Andrzej Olechowski PhD.

With the acronym PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident), a group of men began “walking” every Monday evening through the streets of Dresden, reaching at the top 25.000 participants in January. Beyond the undeniable anti-immigrant attitudes of many PEGIDA-adherents, there seems to be a general challenge to the concept of representative liberal democracy. The specificity of the movement was discussed by German political scientist Dr. Dietrich Herrmann on the expert seminar and in his subsequent analysis.

Rebecca Harms, the president of The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, has commented on the Energy Union project proposed by the then Prime Minister Donald Tusk. In an interview with EurActiv Poland, she introduces a green perspective into the discourse on the project and ponders on its impact on Eastern neighbours as well as climate change.

The post-transition Hungarian protest sector grew to an unseen size during the years of the second Orbán government. Democracy frames gained momentum with large-scale left-liberal protests organized in defense of liberal democracy. Protest event analysis and secondary sources were used during the third expert seminar with Mihály Gyimesi to explain interactions between popular support and dissent.

Between 2013 and 2014 Bosnia-Herzegovina witnessed the first mass protests since the end of the 1992-1995 war. Chiara Milan provides an overview of the latest Bosnian unrest, analysing the roots of its emergence, the social composition and forms of organization, as well as achievements and shortcomings of civic resistance.

In his newest book Ivan Krastev discusses the relationship between protest and democracy. Does the last wave of protests signal a radical change in the way politics will be practiced? Will it be the empowering energy of the protests or the conservative backlash against them that will shape the future of democratic politics? These questiones were adressed during Ivan Krastev's lecture organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Collegium Civitas on 19th March 2015.

Nowadays, king coal has more or less ceded his throne. The era of cheap, accessible coal has ended, and all three regions are faced with the same dilemma: what next? How can policymakers, civil society and the private sector replace the dying incumbent industries with green alternatives and create jobs at the same time? This dilemma, or rather opportunity, was the overarching theme of the Green Jobs Tour site visits, meetings, and roundtables.

One year after the annexation of Crimea, an international conference held at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin on March 2 offered European and US experts the opportunity to analyse and discuss Europe’s response to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. What are the EU’s policy options towards Russia? What progress has been made towards political and economic renewal? To the conference documentation with recordings and articles.

The Warsaw visit of Bärbel Höhn, chairperson of the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of the German Bundestag, was a unique opportunity for the Foundation to hold a debate on visions and realities of the German energy transition. In the subsequent interview for Euractiv.pl she reflects on both visions and outcomes, benefits and challenges related to the transformation as well as its impact on coal-rich areas.

Shale gas boom in the USA is widely discussed in Poland. Therefore, the Heinrich Böll Foundation  organised a study tour for Polish activists, journalists and experts to USA in order to show them the results of the effects of natural gas exploration on local communities along the Marcellus Shale. One of the participants, Tomasz Ulanowski wrote an article about environmental, social, economic and political aspects of drilling in Pennsylvania.

The World Nuclear Industry Status Report is an annual comprehensive overview of nuclear power plant data, including information on operation, production and construction. How are its conclusions relevant for Poland? How can we estimate the country’s nuclear power programme? The Heinrich Böll Foundation in Warsaw is pleased to be hosting on 27.10.2014 a meeting with the main author of the report, Mycle Schneider, as well as a discussion about the future of energy in Poland and the wider world.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation in Warsaw is honoured to congratulate Professor Małgorzata Fuszara on becoming Goverment Plentipotentiary for Equal Treatment. May energy and satisfaction provide her with energy necessary to mainstream gender equality policies in Poland. Given our long cooperation, we wish to present again an interview with Professor Fuszara about the Congress of Women, political representation and quotas.

The debate on the possibilities and limits of German foreign policy cannot be divorced from the context of history. In 2014, Europe is commemorating a century of wars and revolutions. The conclusions to be drawn for our present actions are controversial, however, as can be seen currently with regard to Ukraine. This raises the question of how far policy can rely on historical experiences and the lessons that history has in store for us. We present materials from the 15th Annual Foreign Policy Conference "On the way toward greater responsibility? Lessons from a century of extremes for the future of German Foreign Policy".

In the recent years, press agencies and social media have frequently informed about social protests. What are the differences between a protest, disobedience and a revolution? Will the need and necessity to “go out into the street” survive in the digital era? The debates in Warsaw and Wrocław were held after the screening of the film "Everyday Rebellion"  by The Riahi Brothers during the 11th PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL.

How can we secure global prosperity anchored in a sustainable and balanced relationship between humans and nature? How to paint economic growth in green? The debates by the hbs and Norden Centrum in Warsaw and Wrocław took place as a part of the the 11th Planete+ Doc Film Festival after the screening of “Last Call”. Read the report by David Tischer.

In the course of the EU election campaign, the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk presented his vision for a European Energy Union, which is supposed to end European dependence of Russian gas, which he identified as the essential problem of European Foreign Policy in the Ukraine-Crisis. However, it encountered immediate criticism from green politicians. "Tagesspiegel" published  an article "Polen will die EU unabhängiger machen" ("Poland want to make the EU independent) (in German), where strong and weak sides of the proposition by Tusk are thorougly analyzed. Green voices are represented by Irene Hahn-Fuhr, director of the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation in Warsaw, and Rebecca Harms, Co-President of the Greens/ EFA in the European Parliament.

Women's cotribution to oposition movements in the Communist times deserves to be widely discussed and mainstreamed. Therefore Heinrich Böll Foundation supported the project reclaiming women's place in the history.

The main goal of this article is to explain why left-of-centre opposition parties ended the protracted period of negotiations by creating a type of alliance that exhibits uncanny resemblances to the former governing left-wing coalition (which was roundly defeated by Fidesz in 2010) and has hitherto been incapable of mounting a serious challenge to the ruling right-wing majority in 2014

The EU faces multiple challenges – from the financial crisis, stability of the euro, growing ethnic diversity of European societies, extremist political parties, to overcoming crises at the European gates – in Syria, Libya, Egypt. How to address them? Will the year 2014 bring any change? Can Poland breathe some fresh air into the EU? May the skepticism of some EU members be finally overcome? Such issues were discussed by Rebecca Harms, Marek Cichocki, Adam Ostolski and Aleksander Smolar on 28.10.2013 in Faculty of Modern Languages At Univeristy of Warsaw.

How to paint economic growth in green? Is there a way out of economic and ecological crises that would allow us to secure global prosperity anchored in a sustainable and balanced relationship between humans and nature? Heinrich Böll Foundation and European Council on Foreign Relations cordially invite you to the debate on smart growth on 18.11.2013 at 18:30 in Warsaw Bar Studio.

At the next COP19, Polish government had the chance to lead the UN climate negotiations and weight in the debate about the future of the European Union. For this reason, on 15-16.11.2013 the Greens/EFA group organised a debate on the goals of the Polish COP 19 presidency. We looked at facts and myths surrounding green jobs, and the future of Polish coal. We discussed ideas of city movements and necessary investments for rural areas.  We had already started off on 14.11 with film screening and debate. The conference was crowned with a March for Climate and Social Justice.

On 23-26 September 2013 in Stockholm, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has presented the findings of the Working Group I on the scientific basis of climate change, a part of the ongoing work on the Fifth Assessment Report.
In Poland, anthropogenic causes of climate change are widely disputed. Consequently, climate policies are dismissed as extravagant and detrimental to the economy. This fall, however, climate change is expected to come to the public’s attention with the 19th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP19) taking place in Warsaw 11-22 November 2013.

The adoption of the Lisbon Treaty and of the Eastern Partnership as the new framework for activities in the difficult field of shaping relations between the EU and its Eastern members are an opportunity, but not a guarantee, for the consolidation of the EU’s Eastern policy and for speeding up processes of democratization, especially in Partnership countries. However, relations between Russia and the EU still remain to be clearly regulated.

The effects of the global economic crisis are particularly visible in Eastern Europe and Russia is no exception. Dozens of Russian cities saw their first grassroots demonstrations in years during autumn. The Internet and text messages were deployed to bring people out onto the streets to protest against an increase in vehicle duty. Demands that Putin’s government resign could be seen alongside economic slogans in the ensuing demonstrations. Whether the divided Russian opposition, including Kasparov’s “Solidarity” movement, can seize this opportunity, and if so, to what extent, remains to be seen.

Despite the political system in Belarus being far from democratic, consecutive elections awaken hope of democratic standards being introduced and of the Belarusian opposition becoming stronger. As a starting point, read the analyses of V.Silitsky and A.Wilson concerning the state of Belarusian internal and foreign policy, which have been commissioned by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.