War in Europe, the escalating climate crisis, Europe's position in the global power structure: The EU faces historic challenges. With this issue of the Boell.Thema magazine, we aim to inform about the history and future of the EU.

Colombia emerges as a leader in advances regarding the right to abortion in Latin America. This historic achievement is the result of the Causa Justa (Just Cause) movement. In this magazine, members of Causa Justa share strategies, achievements, and lessons learned. 

Critical raw materials and rare earths are of great economic importance for the European Union. This publication reflects the raw materials situation in four neighboring European countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Georgia, and Armenia.

For more than half a century, the European Union's agricultural policy has focussed primarily on increasing agricultural productivity and the cost-effective production of food. This policy paper provides recommendations for action that are largely possible without amending the EU treaties.

The European Union faces the enormous challenge of having to achieve the necessary climate targets it has set itself, while at the same time increasing industrial competitiveness and ensuring public services of general interest. A sustainable European financial architecture based on three pillars is needed to finance these green-social investments at EU level. It is presented in this policy paper.

In Southern Afghanistan, an urgent crisis is brewing. Water scarcity is driving large-scale displacement and migration, threatening to escalate into a global issue. Decades of drought have depleted traditional water sources, pushing communities to rely on unsustainable groundwater extraction.

Survivors of conflict-related sexual violence can seek redress under several legal frameworks. Knowing about the different legal frameworks is critical for survivors and advocates working alongside them. This fact sheet presents some of them.

Conflict-related sexual violence is frequently and deliberately used as a weapon of war - with many many devastating impacts. Survivors should be at the center of all preventative efforts and responses.

The build-up of national, regional and global public buffer stocks for food can help stabilise prices on global agricultural markets and limit inflation. 

Russia's all-out war against Ukraine has been ravaging the country for more than two years now. It creates a multitude of new challenges that need to be adequately taken into account when planning and implementing Ukraine's reconstruction strategy. A fair and sustainable reconstruction requires gender-sensitive decision-making and implementation of measures.