Youth Cooperation in the Serbian-Hungarian Context

Policy Recommendations

  1. Regional organisations should collect information on existing youth projects (e.g. the Regional Youth Cooperation Office and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights) and relevant funding possibilities to better disseminate the available information to a broader audience within the EU and across the Western Balkan region. These organisations should also act as contact points for interested audiences.
  2. Fostering reconciliation, dismantling old animosities, and establishing trust by providing exchange possibilities, needs to be further promoted. The ERASMUS Programme should fully include all Western Balkan countries, hence changing the status to programme countries for all.
  3. The focus of the Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Programme Hungary-Serbia should move to areas that are of main importance for fulfilling the technical requirements for the EU accession process, such as the rule of law, and providing information on the main logic of democratic processes.

The Vulnerability of Women in the Labour Market in Serbia

Policy Recommendations

  1. Including a gender perspective in employment policies.
  2. Introducing comprehensive programmes and measures to support the employment of vulnerable categories of women as well as empowering women by improving the career guidance system and developing mentoring programmes.
  3. Improving the system of employment protection and preventing discrimination.

Disinformation in a regional context during the war in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has allowed some nationalist groups and even regional governments to reopen discussions on territorial revisionism and tensions with neighbours, but also to use the energy crisis that the war has created in Europe to criticise the West and attempt to demobilise popular support for Ukraine.

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Propaganda Without Borders – A study of pro-Kremlin propaganda among far-right and radical voices in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Serbia

GlobalFocus Center (Romania) has partnered with Political Capital (Hungary) European Western Balkans (Serbia) and  Reporters’ Foundation (Poland), in a joint effort to check out how Ukraine-related disinformation is reflected and used within the far-right, ultra-nationalist and extremist communities to advance goals consistent with Russian interests.

Territorial revisionism in the wake of the War in Ukraine – A report on radical and far-right discourse

When speaking of territorial revisionism, the situation is unique in each country. This is partly due to the different frontier grievances held by nationalists and far-right groups but also due to the variable degree of compatibility between these grievances and Russian interests and propaganda.

Still, nationalist discourse in each country had similarities even before the war started. In every country, nationalists have a dream of Great(er) Serbia / Romania / Poland / Hungary and they feel they have been historically wronged and frustrated in achieving this dream. 

Energy Security and the ‘Harsh Winter’ in Extremist Discourse about the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

In the studied EU countries of Poland, Hungary and Romania, the majority of respondents said they were not prepared for an increase in energy prices. In contrast, in Serbia, there was no polling data available at the time of publication. Unsurprisingly, in all three countries, the energy crisis is exploited by far right and radical elements to criticise the EU and its energy policy.