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[...] Europe’s exit strategy: reviving the continent’s stock market listings Europe’s stock markets are losing the race for initial public offerings (IPOs).While the US has recently seen highly prominent listings, Europe has produced few comparable IPOs. Yet strengthening the European stock markets would benefit both individual companies and Europe as a whole. In a new policy paper, we explain how this could be[...]

[...] How can leaders provide direction when familiar assumptions no longer hold, technological developments are changing the way decisions are made, and international cooperation is becoming more difficult? Leading figures from politics, business, and culture explored this question during the 25th Trilogue Salzburg. At the invitation of founder Liz Mohn and former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, they gathered in[...]

[...] Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Citizen Participation: New Report and Policy Brief published In the report Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Citizen Participation, the OECD and the Bertelsmann Stiftung examine how artificial intelligence can support and improve citizen participation. Based on 50 real-world cases from 22 countries, the study presents nine types of AI applications, assesses their[...]

[...] The Eurochild Conference took place in Cyprus on 16 and 17 June 2026. More than 160 representatives from politics, public administration, academia and civil society from 31 countries exchanged views on the topic of ‘Child Protection Systems’. Eurochild is the largest European network of organisations working with and for children. This year’s conference focused on the question of how children can be[...]

[...] Through its work, the Bertelsmann Stiftung aims to make democracy crisis-proof and sustainable. Here is an overview of our activities and priorities in this area: Maia Sandu and Michael Otto to receive the 2025 Reinhard Mohn Prize The Bertelsmann Stiftung has awarded the2025 Reinhard Mohn Prizeto the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, and to entrepreneur and philanthropist Michael Otto.In keeping with[...]

[...] Content Financial Performance and Impact Go Hand in Hand Many market participants now regard impact investing as a credible investment approach. More than 70 percent of surveyed investors expect market-rate returns or higher. Many achieve or exceed both their financial (64 percent) and impact-related goals (79 percent). These findings suggest that impact investing is increasingly perceived as an approach that[...]

[...] The release of the U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) and National Defense Strategy (NDS) at the turn of 2026 marked a critical inflection point in transatlantic relations. Together, they provided the first official codification of the second Trump administration’s strategic priorities toward Europe. The NSS goes beyond familiar U.S. demands for increased defense spending and burden sharing, adopting, in[...]

[...] Ukraine has long been more than an EU candidate country. It is already a security, innovation, and resources partner of the European Union. If it joins the EU, it would likely become one of the Union’s five most populous Member States. For this and other reasons, the rule of law, internal market readiness, and the EU’s capacity to act are central prerequisites for viable accession. This is the tension at the[...]

[...] Successful transfer of municipal Sample Data Catalogue to GovData The Bertelsmann Stiftung is transferring the municipal Sample Data Catalogue for Open Data to FITKO. As a result, the catalog will be maintained directly within the framework of GovData, Germany’s national open data portal. The Sample Data Catalogue provides an overview of the open data made available by municipalities in Germany. The current[...]

[...] Europe in 2035: Four Scenarios and the Choices that Matter This policy brief presents four plausible trajectories for the European order up to 2035. Rather than predicting the future, the scenarios are intended to clarify how political, economic, security, and geopolitical dynamics could interact over the coming decade, and where strategic choices made in the late 2020s may prove decisive. Europe faces a convergence[...]