Eastern Europe

Serbia's lithium mining project in Jadar has been on hold because of mass protests against feared environmental damage. Now the EU wants to secure this lithium access for Europe - despite the political and legal conditions in Serbia. Interview with environmental and legal experts Mirko Popović and Jovan Rajić from the Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute (RERI).

Slovakia's ruling nationalist-populist coalition plans to introduce controversial Hungarian-style NGO regulations, raising concerns about transparency and fears of increased bureaucracy and repression of civil society.  

The Hungarian civil society plays a crucial role in countering radical rhetoric, yet populists trends blur boundaries between a mainstream that is leaning ever more to the far-right and radical right-wing ideologies.   

In the upcoming European Parliament elections, Poland is torn between two diverging views of its current trajectory. These understandings depend on its citizens' sense of identity, their visions of the future and the role the country should play on the continent. The key choice may be the place of the far right in Polish society.  

“Ceasefire without regaining control over our land means that my son will inherit this war.” In the interview, Inna Sovsun and Yehor Cherniev, members of the Verkhovna Rada, demand to stop denying what Russia's war against Ukraine is about. The conversation was conducted by Robert Sperfeld.

This former Soviet republic, located between Ukraine and Romania, is now the target destination of many refugees from southern Ukraine. The largely rural Republic of Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Julian Gröger, coordinator of cultural and environmental projects in the capital of Chişinău, reports on the effects of the war in Ukraine on this country of 2.5 million inhabitants.

Digital technology plays a key role in the armed conflict in Ukraine – as a tool for cyberattacks and digital protest, and as an accelerator for information and disinformation.

We declare our full solidarity with Ukraine. We stand by the side of our Ukrainian partners and colleagues, and at the same time also by the side of our partners in Russian civil society who are under harsh state repression.

Following the recent parliamentary elections, many Czechs celebrated the opposition parties’ victory over the business magnate and incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. However, the new center-right governing coalition must be careful not to return to the previous status quo that helped Babiš to power eight years ago.

The Covid-19 pandemic exposes the care crisis and underlying class and regional inequalities — which the new strategy does not equip us to handle.