Publications

The report “Decentralized Social Media Platforms as a Path to a More Resilient Information Ecosystem” describes decentralized alternatives as a counterpoint to the existing platform economy and formulates concrete recommendations to strengthen their visibility and impact.

The study Digitalisiert, politisiert, polarisiert? (Digitised, politicised, polarised?) shows that the algorithms used in social media selectively recommend political content for the feeds seen by young people, giving disproportionate visibility to fringe parties. Our Policy...

The EU’s second Emissions Trading System (ETS2) will apply a uniform carbon price to fossil fuels used in buildings and road transport, affecting around half of the EU’s 188 million house-holds that rely on fossil heating. At a likely entry carbon price of 60 EUR/t CO₂,...

ETS2 will introduce uniform EU-wide carbon pricing for heating, affecting about half of all households across the Union. Using a synthetic EU population of 188 million households, this study shows that most can absorb the additional costs, but a significant minority faces...

AI is rapidly becoming part of Europe’s basic infrastructure - supporting search, communication, education, healthcare and security-relevant systems. Yet this infrastructure is increasingly developed and governed by a small group of non-European firms that concentrate...

Europe is engaged in an intense debate about digital sovereignty and global technological competition – but one crucial aspect is often overlooked: the question of standards. Yet standards are the foundation for trillion-euro markets, innovation, digital sovereignty and...

With “Ensuring Impact – A Guide to Effective Set-up and Follow-up of Citizen Participation”, the Bertelsmann Stiftung, together with the Federation for Innovation in Democracy Europe (FIDE), publishes a comprehensive guide for designing participation processes that deliver...

The second Trump administration has made a U-turn on industrial policy designed to support decarbonisation,

while making a protectionist trade policy its hallmark. US tariffs make the global trade environment extremely

volatile, while the rollback of generous US...