Southeast & Eastern Europe

Una Hajdari summarises the events around the year 1968 in Yugoslavia on the occasion of the 7th European History Forum. 

The year 1968 brought discomfort as well as inspiration to Yugoslavia. It was difficult to face something as ambivalent.

The 7th European History Forum took place in May 2018 at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin. Speakers and guests from Germany, Eastern and Southeastern European countries discussed likenesses and differences according their respective historical classification of the events of the year 1968.

The armed conflict between Ukrainian authorities and Russia-backed militias in the Ukrainian Donbass region has already led to some 10,000 killed and 25,000 wounded civilians. Partly landmines are the cause.

The name Visegrad in Western European terminology has become synonymous with a lack of solidarity and nationalist politics. In Hungary, however, it also has implications for the future of democracy in Western Europe. How can the EU recover its appeal?

A quarter of a century has gone by since the crime in Ahmići, a village in central Bosnia. The reconciliation process has lasted for decades and is far from being over.

A conversation with Mykola Rjabtschuk, a writer based in Kiev, regarding some issues that have led to heated discussions within the EU.

Most important now is that the international community responds speedily and clearly to what amounts to a Russian occupation of the Crimea and the additional threat of Russian troops being stationed in Ukraine. Europe is in no way powerless in the face of Russian actions, as Ralf Fücks and Walter Kaufmann illustrate in a ten-point plan.

The focal points of the offices are supporting democratic and constitutional reform processes in the region and strengthening civil society. They work with journalists, lawyers and political scientists, initiate media debates, organize workshops and advise reform-oriented political forces and groups.

For now, the revocation of the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s registration by the Russian Federation marks the end of 30 years of dedicated work in this country.