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Dialogue Southeast Europe

Our Mission
Seven members of the FES Dialogue Southeast Europe project team pose for a formal group photo in front of white blinds. In the back row, from left to right, stand Selma Šehović, Saša Vasić, Ema-Džejna Smolo-Zukan, and Harun Cero. In the front row, seated at a wooden table from left to right, are Lejla Garaplija, Sarah Hees-Kalyani, and Jasmina Pirija.
Creator: FES / Admir Kuburović

Our Mission

After more than two decades of engagement in southeastern Europe, the FES recognizes that the challenges and problems still facing this region can best be resolved through a shared regional framework. Our commitment to advancing our core interests in democratic consolidation, social and economic justice and peace through regional cooperation, has since 2015 been strengthened by establishing an infrastructure to coordinate the FES' regional work out of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: the Regional Dialogue Southeast Europe (Dialogue SOE).

To that end, Dialogue SOE provides analysis of shared challenges in the region and develops suitable regional programs and activities in cooperation with the respective FES offices. Our work is conducted in close cooperation with colleagues and partners across the region. Activities are jointly implemented and overseen by either an FES office or Dialogue SOE. Furthermore, we integrate our regional work into joint initiatives with our colleagues in Berlin and Brussels. We aim to inform and be informed by the efforts of both local and international organizations in order to further our work in southeastern Europe as effectively as possible.

Our regional initiatives are advanced through three broad working lines:

Our website provides information about individual projects within each of these working lines, past events, and future initiatives.

Our Areas of Work

Just Cry for Justice
Creator: We Cry for Justice by David Haigh - License: CC BY 2.0

Social Democratic Politics and Values

Dialogue SOE is committed to advancing social democratic policies and values in southeastern Europe. Our work in this field is based upon youth exchange and political academy programs.

Ne u EU - Enlargement Policy Trash
Creator: Nel Pavletić / License: Pixel Media d.o.o.

Social and Economic Justice

Substantive democratic governance practices are rooted in fair and equitable economic arrangements. Social justice, more broadly, is intrinsic to the regional agenda the FES advances through its respective offices and individual projects.

Progressive Peace Policy

Peace and stability initiatives represent a decades-long cornerstone of FES work in southeastern Europe. Recent events have only reaffirmed the centrality of southeast European stability within the broader continental security paradigm.

Socio-Ecological Transformation
Creator: Azra Kadic

Socio-Ecological Transformation in SEE

The FES Dialogue Southeast Europe aims to address social challenges in climate and energy policy in the region.

Latest Publications

  • Publication
  • Publication Social and Economic Justice

Who Should Fill the Gap? Economy and Prosperity in Central Eastern and South-eastern Europe, and the Possibilities of Trade Unions

Recently, the economic and labor market indicators in most countries of Central Eastern and South-eastern Europe have taken a positive turn once again. However, the social situation remains tense, precarious labor conditions have spread...

  • Publication
  • Publication Social and Economic Justice
  • Publication Social Democratic Politics and Values

The Democratic Potential of Emerging Social Movements in Southeastern Europe

The left in Southeastern Europe is fragmented and characterized by significant mutual distrust between left and progressive political parties, donor funded or professional NGOs, and the emerging (populist or antagonistic) social...

  • Publication
  • Publication Progressive Peace Policy
  • Publication Political Trends & Dynamics

Political Trends and Dynamics: Emerging Leadership in Southeast Europe

The recent change in government in Macedonia, a small (symbolic, yet important) step forward in Bosnian-Serbian relations embodied by to the first Serbian presidential visit to Bosnia after six years, and Montenegro’s final...

  • Publication
  • Publication Social and Economic Justice

The Exlcuded Generation: Youth in Southeast Europe

This study offers a comparative overview of findings of youth surveys conducted between 2011 and 2015 by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in nine countries of Southeast Europe (SEE). Survey results are indicative of young people’s ...

  • Publication
  • Publication Social and Economic Justice

Health Care Systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The subject of this study is the broadest conceptual issue of how to arrive to a financial model that will allow a sustainable and stable method of financing the healthcare in Bosnia and Herzegovina, thus creating the preconditions for...

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The Relocation of Refugees in the European Union

Just a day before a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers in late April 2015, a tragic incident occurred in the Mediterranean. Nearly 800 people drowned when an overcrowded fishing boat capsized off the coast of Libya on...

  • Publication
  • Publication Socio-ecological transformation in SEE

Koristi od resursne efikasnosti i perspektive zelenog rasta Crne Gore

Trenutnu situaciju u Crnoj Gori u vezi sa smanjenjem emisija gasova s efektom staklene bašte (GHG) karakteriše mali broj stacionarnih izvora emisija GHG (na TE Pljevlja i KAP zajedno otpada 90% ukupnih nacionalnih emisija GHG), veoma...

  • Publication
  • Publication Progressive Peace Policy

From Technical Negotiations to Comprehensive Normalization Belgrade Relations Between Belgrade and Pristina

Belgrade and Pristina are under increasing international and domestic pressure to define their relations through a comprehensive normalization agreement. Both Serbian and Kosovo representatives in principle confirm their commitment to...

  • Publication
  • Publication Progressive Peace Policy
  • Publication Political Trends & Dynamics

Political Trends and Dynamics: NATO in Southeast Europe

The Euro-Atlantic institutional framework is the future of the Western Balkans. Or, at least, that has been the mantra in Brussels and Washington for the better part of the last two decades. European integration, arguably the more...

  • Publication
  • Publication Social and Economic Justice

Wealth Tax in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Traditionally, a right to tax exists and is theoretically justified only after the basic human needs are met. Accordingly, fair taxation implies that the ones who have more wealth, pay more taxes, and thus finance state and...