Center for Central and Eastern Europe of the Robert Bosch Stiftung

The Center for Central Europe of the Robert Bosch Stiftung at the DGAP was founded in 2007. To promote transnational cooperation and mutual understanding the center organizes discussions, workshops and projects on current political developments in Central and Eastern Europe. Several programs of the Robert Bosch Stiftung promoting and connecting future decision makers and young scientists from Central and Eastern Europe as well as Germany are carried out in close cooperation with the Center.

“Europe’s reunification” opens up new perspectives for cooperation with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Converging values and political harmonization still constitute a challenge for the creation of an integrated Europe. Different historical experiences and images about Europe need to be reconciled. It is therefore a crucial task to establish a sphere for the exchange of views. The “Eastern enlargement of European thinking” should be enhanced and it should be pointed to the cultural, historical and political relevance of this region for the future development and design of the European Union.

As a “think tank” and initiator, the Center for Central and Eastern Europe of the Robert Bosch Stiftung generates new ideas and new concepts and disposes of the institutional know-how in order to implement innovative models. The researchers of the center offer information and background analyses for politics and the media.

In 2010/11, the Center for Central and Eastern Europe of the Robert Bosch Stiftung will accompany and comment on the following political events and will work on the topics mentioned below:

  • Parliamentary elections in Hungary (04/2010), the Czech Republic (05/2010), Slovakia (06/2010) and Poland (2011)
  • Presidential elections in Poland (2010), Hungary (06/2010) and Belarus (2011)
  • EU Council Presidency of Hungary (first half of 2011) and Poland (second half of 2011)
  • Eastern Partnership (initiative of the European Union, target countries: Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia)
  • German policy regarding the East (political strategies for bi- and multilateral relations between Germany and the Eastern partners)
  • Between renationalization and European integration (suspense between national-populist tendencies and the evaluation of the European process of integration in the new EU member states and the Eastern EU neighbors)