Dear federalist friends,

The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) has entered its hot political phase and I want to express my appreciation for your dedication and commitment. 

Being present in a structured and effective way, as well as being recognisable on the CoFoE Multilingual Digital Platform with our proposals, became a necessary condition both for conveying its political message and for enhancing meetings on the ground at all levels. The aim was to be influential in order to condition future decision-making processes, to bring out the drive for reform of the European Treaties, unavoidable if it emerged from the debate and the requests of citizens, on the platform - the only tool at our disposal to convey ideas and political message. From there, we, federalists, conveyed both to the European citizens' panels and, above all, to the plenary session.

With a view to a debate aiming at advancing federalist demands, we encouraged our Sections and Members to organise debates linked to our political proposals on the platform. For nearly a year, you have been boosting your efforts to raise awareness about this positive momentum, with a view to engage citizens directly, and to gain wider support for our ideas, projects, and proposals. Therefore, I wish to thank you  for crowding the squares of your cities and towns, for organising conferences and workshops in schools, universities, and inside your sections.

During this past year, we have seen enormous growth in the support and visibility of federalist ideas, especially those aimed at strengthening European Democracy. You have been integral to the important advances we have made, particularly promoting a stronger pan-European democracy — real European political parties and movements and proper campaigns for European elections, based on the creation of a pan-European constituency and transnational electoral lists headed by the candidates for President of the European Commission. Moreover, we have also called for the need for a political and fiscal Union that can tackle the great transnational challenges of our time, acting decisively on a wide range of policy areas, from climate change, growing social inequalities, health and migration to foreign affairs and defense. 

Our collective efforts together with JEF and the Spinelli Group, yielded a great outcome for the federalist ideas in the CoFoE Multilingual Digital Platform. This was only possible through your commitment of time and effort, which was especially notable during this final rush campaigning together for a more sovereign, democratic and federal Europe.

Again, I would like to thank you for all your invaluable contributions and your continued commitment to the federalist values and mission of our organisation.

Yours faithfully,

Sandro GOZI

UEF President

Dear federalist friends,

The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) has entered its hot political phase and I want to express my appreciation for your dedication and commitment.

Being present in a structured and effective way, as well as being recognisable on the CoFoE Multilingual Digital Platform with our proposals, became a necessary condition both for conveying its political message and for enhancing meetings on the ground at all levels. The aim was to be influential in order to condition future decision-making processes, to bring out the drive for reform of the European Treaties, unavoidable if it emerged from the debate and the requests of citizens, on the platform - the only tool at our disposal to convey ideas and political message. From there, we, federalists, conveyed both to the European citizens' panels and, above all, to the plenary session.

With a view to a debate aiming at advancing federalist demands, we encouraged our Sections and Members to organise debates linked to our political proposals on the platform. For nearly a year, you have been boosting your efforts to raise awareness about this positive momentum, with a view to engage citizens directly, and to gain wider support for our ideas, projects, and proposals. Therefore, I wish to thank you for crowding the squares of your cities and towns, for organising conferences and workshops in schools, universities, and inside your sections.

During this past year, we have seen enormous growth in the support and visibility of federalist ideas, especially those aimed at strengthening European Democracy. You have been integral to the important advances we have made, particularly promoting a stronger pan-European democracy — real European political parties and movements and proper campaigns for European elections, based on the creation of a pan-European constituency and transnational electoral lists headed by the candidates for President of the European Commission. Moreover, we have also called for the need for a political and fiscal Union that can tackle the great transnational challenges of our time, acting decisively on a wide range of policy areas, from climate change, growing social inequalities, health and migration to foreign affairs and defense.

Our collective efforts together with JEF and the Spinelli Group, yielded a great outcome for the federalist ideas in the CoFoE Multilingual Digital Platform. This was only possible through your commitment of time and effort, which was especially notable during this final rush campaigning together for a more sovereign, democratic and federal Europe.

Again, I would like to thank you for all your invaluable contributions and your continued commitment to the federalist values and mission of our organisation.

Yours faithfully,

Sandro GOZI

UEF President

From Euractiv | By Anna Echterhoff and Sandro Gozi

2022 will be “a turning point” for Europe. The winds of change blowing from some member states are bringing the EU into a new era, write Anna Echterhoff and Sandro Gozi.

Anna Echterhoff is Secretary General of the Union of European Federalists

Sandro Gozi is a Renew Europe MEP and President of the Union of European Federalists

2021 has been a year of transition in the European Union (EU) with decisions of federal scope such as the Recovery Plan and the Next Generation EU, the successful purchase and distribution of vaccines, the COVID-19 Certificate and the approval of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027.

Germany has just turned the page on Angela Merkel’s 16 years of leadership, France is bracing itself for an uncertain presidential election in the spring, and in Italy Draghi will continue as prime minister. Merkel’s departure leaves a vacuum that Macron, Scholz and Draghi are trying to fill.

GERMANY

In Germany there is now a chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who proposes a paradigm shift in his country to invest in social cohesion, who proposes “moving towards a federal Europe” and who is open to reforming the eurozone’s stability and growth pact.

The change of tone in the new German government is evident, they “want to increase Europe’s strategic sovereignty”, aiming at developing the EU’s own capacity to act in a global context and in important strategic areas such as, for example, energy supply, health, import of raw materials, technology… With the confirmation of the German position, we might see important advances towards a federal Union as they seem keen to facilitate reforms in this sense.

ITALY

Mario Draghi will remain as the country’s prime minister, securing an unprecedented influence on key European policies.

Significantly, Chancellor Scholz included Rome among the capitals he first visited shortly after succeeding Angela Merkel. With French President Emmanuel Macron, the harmony is exceptional. Together they signed the Quirinal Treaty in November, along the lines of the Elysée Treaty signed between Paris and Berlin in 1963 to increase cooperation in many strategic sectors such as defence.

Macron and Draghi have just co-signed an article in the Financial Times calling for a stronger, more sustainable and fairer Europe, a sign of a growing alliance between two of Europe’s most dynamic leaders.

FRANCE

French voters are heading to the polls in late April. President Emmanuel Macron is currently polling first among all candidates and his victory would mean that France would still have a pro-European leader looking to work with Germany and Italy to reform the Union.

The French presidency of the Council of the European Union will also mark this new chapter, in which Macron will defend a powerful and sovereign Europe, with the reform of the stability pact and the development of the Union’s strategic sovereignty as his political priorities.

Driven by COVID-19, this has made it possible to take historic steps forward in the integration project and to strengthen the role of this type of mandate, which has had fairly limited room for manoeuvre since the Treaty of Lisbon.

This was evidenced by its drive to develop a joint vaccination strategy that was a cornerstone of the European response to the pandemic by ensuring its equitable distribution to all EU citizens. But also the impetus he gave to put in place the most ambitious recovery plan in EU history, that could be the embryo of a European fiscal arm.

The stars are aligning for real EU reform, we believe that decisive steps will be taken in the federal logic as we understand that there is an agreement between the main political forces, especially between the virtuous triangle that would leave behind years of paralysis and hesitation.

We must now take advantage of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which was launched on 9 May 2021 in Strasbourg with civil society and citizens, in order to move forward a more sovereign, democratic and stronger EU.

The Citizens’ have spoken, they want to overcome the veto vote in the Council, to give the right of legislative initiative of the EP, re-launch the process for a real EU Constitution, directly vote European political parties through transnational lists and introduce new forms of direct democratic citizens participation.

The new pro-European alliance will support the citizens’ petitions, pushing to strengthen European democracy and facilitating the much needed reforms.

We expect, and as UEF are committed to, in particular, the start of a further deepening of the European Union and its transformation into a true European federation. Let’s revive the Ventotene legacy and its spirit, building a united Europe of freedom, equality and human rights in which each and every one of us can say “I belong”.”

As stated in the last line of the Ventotene Manifesto, the road won’t be easy, but UEF will keep striving to develop Spinelli’s ideas.

UEF President Sandro GOZI: “We must get inspired and revive the spirit of the Ventotene Manifesto to push for a new European democratic transformation.”

In 1941, while imprisoned on Ventotene island just off the coast of Italy, the intellectuals Altiero Spinelli, Ernesto Rossi and Eugenio Colorni penned ‘For a Free and United Europe’, a founding text urging for the creation of a united Europe built on federalist principles. This document, also known as the Ventotene Manifesto, was distributed among the European resistance thanks to Ursula Hirschmann, a German anti-fascist activist who managed to smuggle it from the island. In January 1944, a mimeographed clandestine edition of the Manifesto appeared in Rome.

All they had the courage, the imagination, and the irreverent genius to look up beyond the horizon of the present moment. They had the courage to imagine Europe and a future world in which civil rights and fraternity among all people would be at the center of social life and politics.

Back then, the authors of the Ventotene Manifesto called for “new people” to realise a free and united Europe, but, after 81 years, it is still an ongoing process to build a European identity united in shared values and solidarity through the founding of a political union of the 27 member states. Elements of this are visible, as in the unity that has been demonstrated during the COVID crisis.

We must now take advantage of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which was launched on 9 May 2021 in Strasbourg with civil society and citizens, in order to move forward a more sovereign, democratic and stronger EU. We expect, and as UEF are committed to, in particular, the start of a further deepening of the European Union and its transformation into a true European federation.

On the 81 Anniversary of the Ventotene Manifesto, we, the federalists, want to revive the Ventotene legacy and its spirit building a united Europe of freedom, equality and human rights in which each and every one of us can say "I belong”." As stated in the last line of the Ventotene Manifesto, the road won’t be easy, but UEF will keep striving to develop Spinelli’s ideas.

European Parliament (EP) President David SASSOLI has passed away at age 65.

Born in Florence on 30 May 1956, SASSOLI studied political science before starting work as a newspaper and news agency journalist.

The father of two began working for national broadcaster RAI in 1992, rising through the ranks to become a familiar face for millions of Italians, presenting the evening news on the main channel, of which he also became deputy-director.

Mr. SASSOLI, a member of Italy’s center-left Democratic Party, has been a member of the EP since 2009. He was elected vice president five years later and has led the body since 2019.

As Parliament President, SASSOLI was a largely conciliatory voice, working to help advance the agenda of von der Leyen, the Commission’s first woman President, including the European Green Deal, the ambitious package of measures to combat climate change.

During his mandate SASSOLI called for a new “political pact” with other institutions to give shape and content to the request of a new Europe, improving the Spitzenkandidat process, enhancing the Parliament’s voice and powers and enacting reforms and treaty revision to strengthen European democracy.

“We want the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) to open up a new phase, a phase of participation, but also of change. To change the rules, because we have seen in this year and a half that there cannot be taboos. European democracy must be more efficient and effective. The European Parliament is very ambitious on this.”, said the EP President SASSOLI at the European Youth Event in the framework of the CoFoE.

As a committed European, he always believed that our future lies in a democratic and sovereign Europe, and pushed for a new European democratic transformation.

In 2020, Sandro GOZI, MEP for Renew Europe and President of the Union of European Federalist (UEF), handed over the nearly 1,200 signatures of the '1,000 x Federal Europe' campaign to David SASSOLI. With President SASSOLI, we shared the need and urgency to provide the Union with new genuine own resources for the European revival.

That same year, the UEF sent an open letter to MEPs calling on the EP to propose the required amendment to the Treaties and asking the other EU institutions to commence the related process of treaty revision. The EP President thanked UEF for the commitment to the European project, he stressed on the need to have a successful CoFoE and on the key role that the Parliament, Civil Society and European Youth has on it.

“UEF is deeply saddened by the terrible loss of a great European and an outstanding President of the European Parliament. He has been a member of the Movimento Federalista Europeo in Rome, since Mr. SASSOLI was a convinced federalist, a champion of European democracy, values and integration. We commend his efforts to build a strong house of European democracy, and express our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. Riposa in pace.”, said UEF President and MEP Sandro GOZI.

Today is a special day for us all.

Today is the 75th anniversary of the formal foundation of the Union of European Federalists.

We celebrate this day with pride and emotion.

75 years passed, but our values are unaltered, as strong as on the first day.

According to the World Health Organisation, two million Europeans may die between November 2021 and March 2022 in the European region. The new Omicron variant and the deterioration of the general health situation in Europe in the autumn of 2021 show that the strategy to fight against the Covid19 must necessarily be European and global.

As long as the majority of the world's population is not vaccinated, all people are at risk and dangerous mutations will continue to appear. In the face of the sixth wave, the right to free movement must also be preserved. Thus, it is essential to take coordinated measures at European level.

Despite lack of hard competences at European level, the EU succeeded in developing a strategy to face the COVID crisis and responded to the main concerns of the European citizens during the pandemic, with the launch of the Health Union advocated by UEF and the common purchase of vaccines.

Furthermore, with more than 725 million EU Digital COVID Certificates issued since July 2021, the EU restored the freedom of movement in the EU, a fundamental right according to the EU Charter for EU citizens and people living in the EU but also for third country nationals travelling to and from EU countries. The EU managed to set an international standard facilitating people mobility as currently 25 third countries from 5 continents are connected to the EU system and 35 applied to be connected.

The UEF welcomes the initiative of the European Commission recommending a third dose of the Covid 19 vaccine made on November 25, 2021 for the entire population and its inclusion in the EU Digital COVID certificate.

However, it is urgent to further strengthen the common European strategy against COVID, since vaccination rates are low in many Member States, and sizeable pockets of population still refuse to be vaccinated.

For this reason, we propose to the European institutions the adoption or promotion of the following measures:

After successive waves, it is also imperative to strengthen a European strategy in the medium term, in order to achieve when necessary full vaccination of Europeans and on a global scale. We also call on the Conference on the Future of Europe to strengthen the EU's health competencies, through the necessary reform of the Treaties.

One year ago, the Union of European Federalists (UEF) embarked on our Democracy is Europe: Remember to Revive journey across the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe. Two main ideas were behind this: on one hand, to raise awareness about the central role of European values in the revolutions of 1989-1991; on the other hand, to encourage a reflection on the future of Europe, European democracy and the Rule of Law.

As part of this project, UEF launched the “1989-1991: the fall of communist regimes: what was the idea of Europe behind the Central-Eastern European and Baltic countries’ democratic transition?” essay contest. Young people, aged from 18 to 25, were encouraged to express their thoughts on the peaceful revolutions and transitions that characterized these European areas. The driving idea of this contest was not only to promote the importance that European principles played back then, but also to explore what is their impact and state of play nowadays in those parts of Europe.

During the Democracy is Europe Final Conference on 2-3 December in Brussels, the essay contest results were announced.

Mr Gustavo Álvarez, 23-year-old student from Spain, was awarded first place, followed by his Georgian fellow Mr Lasha Svanishsvili, 22 years old, and his polish fellow Ms Wiktoria Skrzypecka, 19 years old.

You can read Mr Gustavo Álvarez’s essay below.

1989-1991 the fall of communist regimes: what was the idea of Europe behind the Central-Eastern European and Baltic countries’ democratic transition?

by Gustavo Álvarez

Assuming a causal relation between Europe as a unified region and the revolutions and consequent democratic transitions in CEE and Baltic (CEEB) countries distorts the values and motivations behind these events. Framing conditions the comprehension of the argument. Therefore, it’s essential to draw the line between understanding CEEB democratic transitions through a pro-European collective ingenuity and a sociopolitical tool to avoid the return of the communist system. In the end, establishing a clear differentiation between these two perspectives aims to prove their correlation, but complementarity. It’s said, first we should acknowledge the values of the revolutions and democratic transitions in CEEB countries as a direct response in opposition to the communist regime. Only then, we could argue a shared set of ideas as the common denominator of Europe’s conception among the CEEB region.

In this case, before addressing the so-called “idea of Europe” we need to characterize how CEEB countries prevented themselves from a violent and illiterate Soviet revival. First, opposition intellectual movements appeared, inspired by political martyrs, such as Jan Palach, Romas Kalanta or Imre Nagy. These activist groups were known for their underground organization and were publicly represented by one or two individuals. For instance, the Charter 77 with Václav Havel or the Helsinki Group with Larisa Bogoraz. The revolutions they organized were non-violent, individual freedom oriented and communicated through art. Some examples could be the Singing Revolution in Estonia, or the massive demonstrations during the Velvet Revolution. This innovative way of fighting against the communist establishment represented loyalty to the ideal of freedom, sacrifice for the people and union against the oppressor. These values were translated into peaceful and democratic transitions that helped to expel new communist aspirations and consolidate the germ for a liberal system all over the CEEB region.

The above mentioned values allowed the possibility for CEEB countries to develop a democratic political system and a free market economy. These values were precedent to any European aspiration, since they first needed to develop as a nation in order to enter the EU and NATO. It’s at this stage where the “idea of Europe” enters the liberal democratic transition among CEEB states. Since the emergence of the European Union, Europe has shifted its identity from a liberal democratic reference to a utilitarian body for agreed interdependency. In other words, CEEB countries implemented national policies based on EU “association agreements” during the 90s because of the economic, legal and geopolitical advantages of joining the EU (Sierp, 2015). Europe was the means for CEEB countries to consolidate parliamentary democracy and free market economy. Europe was not the goal because it was the catalyzer. It’s said, long-term democratic transitions in CEEB countries were based on the values they inherited from the revolutions and materialized by EU’s economic resources and political advocacy. In consequence, Europe has always been perceived as the necessary economic and political tool to achieve a proper democratic transition.

During democratic transitions, Europe was portrayed as valuable in itself, but merely useful for developing functioning liberal democracies among CEEB countries. Such conceptualization caused an indirect lack of unification between CEEB national revolution values (peace, freedom and intellect) and European democratic identity. Precisely, it’s this weak, might even nonexistent, ideological bond between Europe and CEEB states which enables anti-European narratives to strengthen. The moment economic or political instability appears, Euroscepticism spreads because Europe’s liberal idiosyncrasy was not embedded, along with economic and political support, during CEEB democratic transitions. For instance, the current democracy backsliding, due to massive support to populist and anti-European movements among CEEB countries, shows there is a high-percentage of the population, mainly in the CEE region, that don’t perceive Europe’s democratic values as their own. Ultimately, the absence of the abovementioned European-CEEB ideological connection raises ignorant societies, since citizens don’t understand that rejecting European institutions is highly counterproductive due to negative economic and political effects within their country.

Following the above mentioned arguments, Europe should acknowledge that, although CEEB countries are part of the EU, a democratic transition is not fully achieved until there is a crystallization of European liberal democratic values (Cianetti, Dawson, & Hanley, 2018). In simple terms, while there’s still European countries where the majority of citizens use their vote to empower leaders who depict Europe as the enemy, a stable long-term democratic transition it’s not completed. Europe has become an effective economic tool for market and political integration, while failing at being identified as the democratic ideal in CEEB countries. Accordingly, now more than ever, it’s essential to focus on the role of the EU as a liberal democratic safeguard in order to build a long-term ideological nexus with CEEB former revolution values.

The idea of Europe behind the Central-Eastern European and Baltic countries’ democratic transition was mainly utilitarian. The idea of Europe is still under construction. Democratic transitions in CEEB countries will only be fully successful if their population empathize with the idea of Europe as a liberal democratic safeguard, as much as they do with the values of their national revolutions. The role of the EU as an economic and political catalyzer for integration needs to be complemented by an ideological bond between European and national political values. As Václav Havel (2018, p. 92) asked: “Do not these ‘post-democratic’ relationships of immediate personal trust and the informal rights of individuals based on them come out of the background of all those commonly shared difficulties?” Let’s remember the past to revive our common objectives, remain unified under polarization, keep our intellect sharp and be loyal to the values that granted our freedom.

References

We would like to take again the opportunity to sincerely thank all the young people that take their time and effort to contribute with their essays, as well as those who have supported our project.

During the Final Conference of Democracy is Europe UEF also engaged the participants in the #DemocracyisEurope Competition asking them their ideas on the future of Europe: how to improve the EU in the future?

FIRST AWARDED ESSAY

1989-1991 the fall of communist regimes: what was the idea of Europe behind the Central-Eastern European and Baltic countries’ democratic transition?

by Gustavo Álvarez

Assuming a causal relation between Europe as a unified region and the revolutions and consequent democratic transitions in CEE and Baltic (CEEB) countries distorts the values and motivations behind these events. Framing conditions the comprehension of the argument. Therefore, it’s essential to draw the line between understanding CEEB democratic transitions through a pro-European collective ingenuity and a sociopolitical tool to avoid the return of the communist system. In the end, establishing a clear differentiation between these two perspectives aims to prove their correlation, but complementarity. It’s said, first we should acknowledge the values of the revolutions and democratic transitions in CEEB countries as a direct response in opposition to the communist regime. Only then, we could argue a shared set of ideas as common denominator of Europe’s conception among the CEEB region.

In this case, before addressing the so-called “idea of Europe” we need to characterize how CEEB countries prevented themselves from a violent and illiterate Soviet revival. First, opposition intellectual movements appeared, inspired by political martyrs, such as Jan Palach, Romas Kalanta or Imre Nagy. These activist groups were known for its underground organization and were publicly represented by one or two individuals. For instance, the Charter 77 with Václav Havel or the Helsinki Group with Larisa Bogoraz. The revolutions they organized were non-violent, individual freedom oriented and communicated through art. Some examples could be the Singing Revolution in Estonia, or the massive demonstrations during the Velvet Revolution. This innovative way of fighting against the communist establishment represented loyalty to the ideal of freedom, sacrifice for the people and union against the oppressor. These values were translated into peaceful and democratic transitions that helped to expel new communist aspirations and consolidate the germ for a liberal system all over the CEEB region.

The abovementioned values allowed the possibility for CEEB countries to develop a democratic political system and a free market economy. These values were precedent to any European aspiration, since they first needed to develop as a nation in order to enter the EU and NATO. It’s at this stage where the “idea of Europe” enters the liberal democratic transition among CEEB states. Since the emergence of the European Union, Europe has shifted its identity from a liberal democratic reference to a utilitarian body for agreed interdependency. In other words, CEEB countries implemented national policies based on EU “association agreements” during the 90s because of the economic, legal and geopolitical advantages of joining the EU (Sierp, 2015). Europe was the mean for CEEB countries to consolidate parliamentary democracy and free market economy. Europe was not the goal because it was the catalyzer. It’s said, long-term democratic transitions in CEEB countries were based on the values they inherited from the revolutions and materialized by EU’s economic resources and political advocacy. In consequence, Europe has always been perceived as the necessary economic and political tool to achieve a proper democratic transition.

During democratic transitions, Europe was portrayed as valuable in itself, but merely useful for developing functioning liberal democracies among CEEB countries. Such conceptualization caused an indirect lack of unification between CEEB national revolution values (peace, freedom and intellect) and European democratic identity. Precisely, it’s this weak, might even inexistent, ideological bond between Europe and CEEB states which enables anti-European narratives to strengthen. The moment economic or political instability appears, Euroscepticism spreads because Europe’s liberal idiosyncrasy was not embedded, along with economic and political support, during CEEB democratic transitions. For instance, the current democracy backsliding, due to massive support to populist and anti-European movements among CEEB countries, shows there is a high-percentage of the population, mainly in the CEE region, that don’t perceive Europe’s democratic values as own. Ultimately, the absence of the abovementioned European-CEEB ideological connection raises ignorant societies, since citizens don’t understand that rejecting European institutions is highly counterproductive due to negative economic and political effects within their country.

Following the abovementioned arguments, Europe should acknowledge that, although CEEB countries are part of the EU, a democratic transition is not fully achieved until there is a crystallization of European liberal democratic values (Cianetti, Dawson, & Hanley, 2018). In simple terms, while there’s still European countries where majority of citizens use their vote to empower leaders who depict Europe as the enemy, a stable long-term democratic transition it’s not completed. Europe has become an effective economic tool for market and political integration, while failing at being identified as the democratic ideal in CEEB countries. Accordingly, now more than ever, it’s essential to focus on the role of the EU as a liberal democratic safeguard in order to build a long-term ideological nexus with CEEB former revolution values.

The idea of Europe behind the Central-Eastern European and Baltic countries’ democratic transition was mainly utilitarian. The idea of Europe is still under construction. Democratic transitions in CEEB countries will only be fully successful if their population empathize with the idea of Europe as a liberal democratic safeguard, as much as they do with the values of their national revolutions. The role of the EU as an economic and political catalyzer for integration needs to be complemented by an ideological bond between European and national political values. As Václav Havel (2018, p. 92) asked: “Do not these ‘post-democratic’ relationships of immediate personal trust and the informal rights of individuals based on them come out of the background of all those commonly shared difficulties?” Let’s remember the past to revive our common objectives, remain unified under polarization, keep our intellect sharp and be loyal to the values that granted our freedom.

References

Cianetti, L., Dawson, J., & Hanley, S. (2018). Rethinking “democratic backsliding” in Central. East European Politics, 34(3), 243-256.

Havel, V. (2018). The Power of the Powerless. London: Vintage Classics.

Sierp, A. (2015). Democratic Change in. Luxembourg: European Parliamentary Research Service.

SECOND AWARDED ESSAY by Lash Svanishvili

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