future

One of the key topics of the past nearly four years has been the future face of the relations between the UK and the EU in the post-transition period era. Not many people expected that within the given time frame there would be sufficient time and willingness to reach a mutually acceptable deal.

In December 2019, it seemed that 2020 would be the key year for Poland, and that the events of the next year, 2021, would be a simple consequence of the last important political verdict of a closed election cycle – the election of the President of Poland.

The Church in Poland was, is, and will be. Meanwhile, political parties exist, disappear, and new ones emerge. This is what it looks like in Poland, where politicians of all ideological backgrounds are much more afraid of their parish priest than of their voters.

Estonia’s Prime Minister Jüri Ratas has resigned over a corruption investigation in his party. He paved the way for the opposition Reform Party to form a new governing coalition that excludes the right-wing populist allies of the previous government.

In what a few years ago would have seemed an unfathomable turn of events, the current Estonian government is set to hold a nonbinding referendum in the spring of 2021 to solidify the definition of marriage as being between a man and woman.

Singapore ranked first in the 2020 edition of the Smart Cities Index, which aims to assess cities in terms of citizens\' needs. Bratislava ranked 76th out of 109 cities with a year-on-year improvement of 8 places.

In the midst of a pandemic, an unstable situation beyond our eastern border, disastrous relations with the EU countries, and uncertainty about the future of Poland\'s key military ally, i.e. the United States, power focused on factional wars is a scenario that Poland simply cannot afford.

“[...] [T]hink but not make thoughts your aim”, to quote Kipling. Thinking is important, but if it is not followed by action, ideas will forever wander aimlessly in the cerebral labyrinth of neuron paths. Why then do we still have think tanks and not more do tanks?

In the last few months, life at the universities has changed dramatically and involuntarily. Lectures and tutorials have shifted online, Zoom became the new lecture hall and seminar room, and students had a taste of what it is like to have their exams or finals take place online.

In June 2020, the German cabinet introduced a regulation banning certain single-use products made of plastic; the European Union had already introduced a similar regulation in May 2019. In future, the sale of products such as throwaway plastic cutlery, plates, straws and cotton buds will be prohibited.