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Promoting Freedom in East and Southeast Europe

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2.2 Minutes
Promoting Freedom in East and Southeast Europe
© Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom East and Southeast Europe

FNF Globally 

Nowadays, liberal values are being endangered globally. Close to 700 employees in 60 countries worldwide, including Germany, try to counter this development and are united by one cause – the promotion of freedom with responsibility. The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) envisions an enlightened and tolerant society in Germany, Europe and the whole world, with more engaged and politically active citizens. As a source of ideas, as well as a driver for innovation and creativity, the Foundation strives to strengthen political liberalism in Germany and to create an environment enabling as many people as possible to reach their full potential.

Through its worldwide activities, FNF hopes to generate impetus for a broad debate on liberal topics in society, followed by policy action and the fostering of free and prosperous individuals. Together with its partners, the Foundation searches for and develops liberal solutions in the following priority areas:

  • The Best Education: Freedom cannot survive long without education. Likewise, without freedom there is no good education. Education and freedom of choice of educational pathways are the pillars on which every person can build his or her talents.
  • Digital and Open Society: The digital society offers a lot of possibilities for creative development and economic progress, but not at the expense of freedom and privacy. Human and civil rights are the pillars of liberalism. In an open society, everyone has the freedom to be oneself and to shape his or her own life.
  • The Future of the Social Market Economy: Only the market economy can guarantee personal and social freedom and a high standard of living. However, recently there has been a tendency to undermine the fundamentals of the social market economy – especially the freedom of creativity and innovation. Self-determined citizens should not allow this to happen.
  • International Relations: A liberal and peaceful world, open markets and the protection of human rights and the rule of law are at the core of FNF’s global policy work.

For more than 60 years now, FNF has aspired to be the freedom platform for all liberal minded people worldwide.

FNF in East and Southeast Europe

More than a quarter of a century ago, most of the people living in the region of East and Southeast Europe (ESEE) – except in Turkey – were under communist rule. In a very short time, many of the region’s countries succeeded in building systems of democracy with functioning market economies. FNF supports the institutional transformation process and the promotion of the values of a free and democratic Europe. FNF is committed to the consolidation of democratic, market-oriented structures and to the strengthening of civil societies through political and civic consultation, dialogue and education. FNF’s partners are civil society and non-governmental organisations, political parties and party-affiliated organisations, citizens’ initiatives, human rights organizations, think-tanks, and scientific organizations.

The Regional Office overall covers 22 countries in East and Southeast Europe. The Regional Office in Sofia coordinates the following 8 Project Offices in the region, each of which is responsible for several countries: Bulgaria and North Macedonia, Greece, Romania and Republic of Moldova, Western Balkans, Russia and Central Asia, Ukraine and Belarus, South Caucasus and Turkey.