Articles

The past year was full of events related to the ongoing crisis of the rule of law in Poland. The last few months have been dominated mainly with the issue of the \"milestones\" attached to the National Reconstruction Plan and the disagreement within the ruling coalition as to how to achieve them. Among other things, for this purpose the infamous Disciplinary Chamber was abolished and replaced with Chamber of Professional Responsibility.

In this episode, we talk about four scenarios for the future of CEE and the EU, redefining EU strategic autonomy, and why a treaty change might be counterproductive.

In December 2022, the Hungarian government launched its 12th national consultation, asking voters about their views on the Ukraine-Russia war and the European Union\'s sanctions. The consultation, as usual was filled with manipulated questions, false dilemmas, and vague expressions, and was preceded by a strong, one-sided Eurosceptic and state-funded campaign.

The February issue of the 4liberty.eu Newsletter provides an overview of the articles published on the 4liberty.eu website, serving as a starting point for further exploration.

The following article is an analysis of how the Orbán government transformed the form of conditional distribution in Hungary over the past 12 years. How did the support system for the poor become the support system of the middle and upper middle class and how did it exclude the most disadvantaged groups from almost all benefits?

Hungary\'s right-wing government, since Fidesz\'s first landslide victory in 2010 and their subsequent successes in 2014, 2018, and 2022, has been increasingly willing to put cultural issues, particularly gender and LGBT+, at the forefront of its campaigns. Fidesz\'s framing of the issue regularly contained the need for children\'s protection rather than overt attacks on sexual and gender minorities.

Estonia\'s e-Governance Academy (eGA) is leading a digital transformation project in Ukraine that will improve the efficiency, security and access to public services for citizens and businesses. The project will develop services for the government e-service app Diia, improve data exchange between registers and service providers and further develop eID infrastructure.

While work on Estonia\'s newly drafted National Security Concept began before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) says that the changed security situation has made its adoption all the more pressing.

In the current situation of high inflation and large budget deficits, salary increases for politicians and central bankers alike are rightly criticised. While, because of the poor economic situation, the wages of most citizens are falling in real terms due to inflation, these high-ranking civil servants are not feeling any of the pinch.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about several socio-economic changes. However, one of them is undoubtedly the change in alcohol consumption among Czech consumers. Despite the fact that the aggregated data from the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) showed overall decline in average alcohol consumption in the Czech Republic during 2021, for some most-risky groups of consumers the situation has worsened.