In our parliamentary democracies, we need as many people as possible to participate. We need people who keep up to date politically and go to the polls. We need people who get involved in parties and thus enable a democratic competition of political ideas. We need people who condense opinions in NGOs, think tanks, clubs and associations, make them visible and enable a public debate that reflects the diverse interests and views in our society. We need journalists who see themselves as the "fourth estate", who process information reliably, who look and stay on top of things.
What we are working on in 2023:
In the framework of "political laboratories" we bring together politicians, experts, scientists and journalists in order to examine current topics that we think are neglected in public discourse in a small circle of 12-15 people in an intensive, interdisciplinary and application-oriented way. In a political laboratory, for example, we want to address the question of how digital approaches and methods will influence party work and election campaigns in the future.
Together with our media partner hotnews.ro, we will conduct a series of interviews with interlocutors from politics, academia and society in order to locate where Romania stands one year after the Ukraine war in various fields from economy to defence.
We support junior staff from the Romanian EPP member parties in developing political skills and building their political profile. We also particularly support women in the Romanian EPP member parties.
Together with our partner ARDOR, the Romanian Association for Debating, Speech and Rhetoric, we promote the debating culture among Romanian students. Those who feel confident and competent in public speaking hopefully also raise their voices loudly to contribute politically.
With our scholarship programme "Fast Track for Future Community Leaders" (in short: "Trackies"), we support young Romanian people in developing an active socio-political role in and for Romania. In addition, we also like to support young people from Romania and Germany through our various internship programmes.
We would like to see a broad bridge of communication between Romania and Germany. That is why we also promote many dialogue programmes for politicians of the EPP parties from both countries on a wide range of topics. From cultural policy to security policy to agricultural policy, everything is on the agenda again this year. We regularly publish country reports on changing topics and are happy to provide briefings to groups of visitors.
