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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

A New Economic Agenda for Southeast Europe: Policy Recommendations

This volume is based on the work and discussions of a working group that has gathered with the assistance of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Its aim was to describe the economic challenges and solutions towards more sustainable, qualitative ...

  • Publication
  • Publication Social and Economic Justice

Towards a Sustainable Economic Growth and Development in the Western Balkans

Although the transition to a market economy and multiparty democracy in the Western Balkan (WB) region started in the late 1980s, in comparison with countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics (CEEB), ...

  • Publication
  • Socio-ecological transformation in SEE
  • Publication Socio-ecological transformation in SEE

Energy for Tomorrow!

Security of energy supply, energy efficiency and the effects of climate change, have been major topics of discussion in recent years. What is the meaning of these topics for Serbia today? Serbia today is largely dependent on Russia for...

  • Publication
  • Publication Social and Economic Justice

Greece: On a New “Mission Impossible”?

Greece’s formal graduation from the 3rd financial assistance program, on 20 August 2018, concluded an arduous and dramatic trajectory that had begun in April 2010, when it became the first Eurozone ...

  • Publication
  • Publication Social Democratic Politics and Values

Overcoming the Democratisation Deficit in the Western Balkans: A Road to (No)Where?

The internal weaknesses of the process of democratisation in the Western Balkans ensue from reinforcing a system where (ethno)politics and (ethno)political entrepreneurs use all available strategies to deprive citizens of any political...

  • Publication

On Europe’s External Borders: Situation Report on Migration Management

Contrary to the impression given in much political discourse, 2015 was not the year when mass migration to Europe started. The Western Mediterranean Route has been an important migration route for Africans wanting...

  • Publication

Social Policy in Political Party Programs: Does Equality Matter

In order to describe a decade-long disregard of political parties towards social issues and marginalized groups in general, IKS brings forth this concise analysis that focuses on both the space dedicated by political parties /coalitions...

  • Publication
  • Publication Social and Economic Justice
  • Publication Political Trends & Dynamics

Political Trends and Dynamics: Inequality in Southeast Europe

The region of Southeast Europe (SEE) has been faced with exceptionally challenging social, economic and political transformations in recent decades. One such challenge is the high level of income inequality. However, despite economic...

  • Publication
  • Publication Social and Economic Justice

The Transformation of Organised Labour: Mobilising Power Resources to Confront 21st Century Capitalism

At the beginning of the 21st century, organised labour is facing new challenges as profound changes in the world of labour have taken place. Major socio-economic trends such as precarisation, informalisation, globalisation and...

  • Publication

Us vs. Them in Central and Eastern Europe: Populism, the Refugee Other and the Re-Consideration of National Identity

The European Union (EU) faced an unprecedented challenge in 2015. Commonly described as the migration crisis, a strong influx of refugees arrived to the continent. These refugees mostly came through the Balkan route, which spans...