Articles

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni\'s government has introduced the Decreto Scuola 2026. The law entered into effect on October 1, 2026, and the Italian Parliament must convert it into a permanent statute within 60 days. The law includes several measures affecting the education system and minorities across Italy.

The resurfacing of the controversial “heartbeat law” for pregnancy interruptions in Hungary gave the newly elected government an opportunity to consult civil and expert opinion before a legislative decision. Understanding the chain of events and the arguments of the different actors involved in the public discourse is crucial for evaluating the successes and failures of the public consultation.

Are women’s rights compatible with religion? How have women\'s rights evolved in the Islamic Republic? Has the recent conflict involving Israel, the United States, and Iran brought Iran any closer to freedom? And what is the endgame? Leszek Jazdzewski (Fundacja Liberte!) talks with Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and human rights activist.

The Civic Space Report measures how free civil society organisations are to operate in seven countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Experts in each country scored the situation from January 2025 to June 2026 against 20 standards. These cover how governments treat civil society, the legal and financial framework, public trust and support, and influence […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Ukraine has the lightest bureaucratic burden (283 hours), followed by Czechia (295) and Hungary (299). Poland carries the heaviest burden (332), followed by Moldova (321) and Slovakia (320). A small firm with 10 employees spends on average 57 hours setting up and 252 hours a year running its business – about 31 working […]

What should be a proper European response to the hybrid attacks by Russia on European territory? How should we view the post-American Middle East and its relationship with Europe? What role is Italy playing today within the EU and what are (and what should be) the country’s ambitions? And what is the current EU policy on migration?

The central paradox of the Hungarian situation is that the very same direct, platform-based communication that helped Péter Magyar circumvent a politically captive media system also enables him, as Prime Minister, to bypass the critical press. The democratic risk arises when citizens come to regard the authorities’ own communications as sufficient for assessing a decision, and independent scrutiny, further questioning or the consideration of alternative interpretations are pushed into the background.

How is a waning liberal order shifting the ground beneath Europe\'s feet?What does Russia’s aggressive revisionism mean for the future of European security?How is Turkey leveraging cooptation to play global powers against each other?Can Europe successfully navigate an increasingly intense strategic and economic rivalry with China?

Specialization has bought us precision, and that is no small thing. A narrow view often catches what someone trying to take in everything will miss. But a doctor who set out to cure one organ without asking what the treatment would do to the rest of the body would cause more trouble than they cured. The difficulty begins when a specialist treats one aspect of a life as enough to explain the whole of it.

For the first time since 1995, investment as a share of the economy is higher in Lithuania than in Estonia. According to Eurostat, gross fixed capital formation in Lithuania amounted to 22.1% of GDP in the first quarter of 2026, while in Estonia it fell to 21.7%. Lithuania remained ahead in the second quarter, with investment reaching 22.4% of GDP, compared with 22.1% in Estonia.