Democracy

The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung commissioned a study by Political Capital entitled “Focus on Hungary: Refugees, Asylum and Migration”. The authors of the study analyse the Orbán Government’s rhetoric and policy measures with regard to refugee, asylum and migration issues. 

The annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the launch of a hybrid war against Ukraine was Russia’s answer to the revolution triggered by Euromaidan. The conflict continues to pose fundamental challenges for the European Union, and raises the question of whether the EU will maintain its commitment to the political and economic consolidation of those of its Eastern neighbours which aim to make sovereign choices based on the rule of law and democracy.

The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung has commissioned the second volume of the study to furtherexamine existing and new tendencies of Hungarian youth regarding their political choices and the reasons behind them. While previously only students who reside in the country were in the focus, the scope of this recent study has been extended to include the political involvement and attitudes of that part of the Hungarian youth who already are emigrating or are planning to soon move abroad.

The International Literature Festival Berlin, together with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, has called on authors to contemplate the fates of refugees and asylum-seekers in literary form. Twenty-two authors from fifteen different countries answered this call in poems, short prose and essays. The perspectives and insights are just as different as individual motives, destinies, and experiences.

The concept of "gender backlash" encompasses too activities pursued by a multitude of different local initiatives all over Central and Eastern Europe, which strongly promote tradition over equality. In many cases these groups appear to be backed and inspired both by influential US-American “pro life” organisations as well as the Kremlin’s "Gay-rope" propaganda, which aims to discredit the European Union as a place of moral decline. The contributors to this publication express grave concern about the current situation of gender equality and LGBTI rights in Central and Eastern Europe but give reason for hope too.  

The publication was elaborated within the framework of the Regional Program “Gender Democracy/ Women’s Politics”. It contains contributions presented at the regional conference “Gender in the EU. The Future of Gender Policies in the European Union” which took place in Warsaw on 28 October, 2009.

The self-immolation of young and jobless Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid, being deprived of his vegetable stand and humiliated by the authorities, triggered popular movements and historic events in the Arab World completely unexpected in their magnitude...The renown authors in the special edition of “Perspectives Middle East”, a journal of the hbs office in Beirut, address many questions posed by this rapid development.

This publication is an output of a project called "New role of the national parliaments in the EU decision-making processes: previous experience and new challenges pursuant to the Lisbon Treaty", undertaken by EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy together with the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw and Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin with the financial support of Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Annual Report Heinrich Böll Foundation - order print version or download as PDF document.

Politics can only succeed when it is inclusive of all genders. Gender justice is an ambitious goal, one that the Heinrich Böll Foundation is pursuing together with many different allies worldwide. This publication gives an overview of their work.

In the words of the Polish journalist and dissident, Adam Michnik, 1989 was Europe’s annus mirabilis. The peaceful revolution of that year was a miracle effected by the people in central and eastern Europe. Hardly any one (and certainly no western head of state or politician) had foreseen that a popular movement active in different countries would, in just a few months, topple socialist regimes and force the mighty Soviet Union to retreat behind the borders of Russia.

The publication of the European Green Foundation attempts to find answers for the question about the future of Green politics in Poland. The publication stems from the research ordered in 2008 by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and coordinated by Przemysław Sadura. The research concerned the prevailing reception of Green ideas and perception of Green political powers by the Polish society. On its bases, the Author analysed the Greens’ chances of finding a permanent place on the Polish political scene.

There is no doubt that the states of the Western Balkans belong to the European Union. However, their road to the EU is by no means an easy one. The entire Western Balkan region is not only encumbered by the maladies related to its communist past, but also by the problems the region has more recently experienced due to the horrors of war. Many of the ethnic tensions have not yet cooled down.

Civil society has a crucial role to play in holding their governments accountable for the commitments they have made in the context of the ENP. The handbook aims at increasing their capacity to monitor the implementation of ENP Action Plans.

She was one of the best known personalities during the 1980s; an icon of the global ban-the-bomb and peace movements and a protagonist for ecology and human rights. But all this is not just history - it is worth reflecting on what has remained valuable until the present day. Extracts from original texts, six essays on her life and work and many photographs trace the most important stations in her life.

The German Greens first fielded candidates nation-wide in the 1979 European Parliament elections. The Sonstige Politische Vereinigung DIE GRÜNEN, polling 3.25% of the vote, surprised everybody and this was a decisive factor in the founding of a national party, Die Grünen, the following year.

This publication presents a discussion of the future of the EU from a Green perspective. In what direction should the European Union head now? What should the future distribution of tasks between the EU institutions and the Member States look like?

Proceedings from the seminar “Minority Policy in Member States of the EU 25 regarding the Roma and Sinti Minority”

In the face of the lack of public debate on the role of women in the time of transformation, the publication of the Heinrich Böll Foundation Regional Office in Warsaw attempts to present a multidimensional dialogue about the transformation experiences, giving voice to women. The Authors of the publication judge the past twenty years of reforms from the point of view of women from the former countries of the Eastern Bloc: the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and former East Germany.

Assuming that it is important not only to implement the “hard core” EU legislation concerning the equality policy, but to implement it in the areas within competences of EU member countries as well, in 2008 the Warsaw Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, in cooperation with partner organisations from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine, implemented a project analysing the system of education in individual countries in the context of gender equality.