The EU and its Eastern Neighbors

Experts meet in Warsaw

Organized together with the Poland-based think tank DemosEuropa and the Warsaw office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the conference "The European Union and its eastern neighbors. Challenges and new chances of policy shaping" brought together a number of experts to discuss the EU's policies toward its neighbors to the east.
The international event served as preparation for Poland's presidency of the EU, scheduled for 2011. The Bertelsmann Stiftung has carried out numerous activities to support past EU presidencies.

Europe in Dialogue With Middle Eastern "Region of Opportunity"

Network meeting brings together foundations from Europe and Gulf region

Members of the Al-Jisr Network met over the last two days in Berlin to discuss the issues of security and cooperation. Meeting under the auspices of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai and made up of representatives of 20 foundations from Europe and the Gulf region, the network was created in order to promote dialogue among civil society actors in the Middle East. Financed by the European Commission, the network examines issues of joint interest to its members. As participants at the Berlin event concluded in a summary statement, cooperation requires security, and the instable situation in Iraq, Yemen and Iran threatens the Gulf region's security. Moreover, the region is not home to structures promoting dialogue or cooperation, so momentum must come from outside the region.

Commission on the Black Sea

Second policy report now online: "Security in the Black Sea Region"

Regional tensions, natural resources and geopolitical rivalries make the Black Sea region a strategic but sensitive area. In the absence of cooperative structures able to contain conflict, security threats ranging from interstate conflicts to illegal trafficking have emerged.  

Mitat Çelikpala, associate professor of International Relations at TOBB Economy and Technology University in Ankara, is the author of the second of a series of four policy reports presented by the Commission on the Black Sea. According to Çelikpala, the region is politically, historically and geographically divided.