Ivan Krastev

The new study of The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is based on a survey of public opinion conducted by YouGov, Datapraxis, and Norstat in nine EU member states (Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Spain) and two non-EU states (the United Kingdom and Switzerland).

Pelczynska-Nalecz said the war had presented five major challenges to European democracies, which they so far have managed satisfactorily: the refugee crisis, the blow to welfare systems, undermining the rule of law while reaching for quick solutions, the revival of nationalist feelings, and the narrative challenges posed by the Kremlin, for example portraying Russia as a victim of the West, th

Mary B. Warlick (M), Deputy Executive Director International Energy Agency, and Ivan Krastev (R), Permanent Fellow at the IWM, at a panel discussion at the "Time to Decide Europe Summit", in Vienna, Austria, on 16 May 2023. Photo: ERSTE Foundation

At a meeting dedicated to fake news organized by the Institute of Human Sciences and the Slovak Embassy in Vienna, Ker said that Russia and China have realized how with little investment they can cause huge damage.
"Russia in particular uses fake news as a weapon, with Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Slovakia most exposed to the threat of Russian disinformation," he explained.

Ukraine's government is lobbying hard to be granted candidate status, and Kyiv finalised its application for EU accession in early May. The Council of the European Union is expected to decide on that issue at its June 23-24 summit.

More than a quarter (26%) of Bulgarians believe the government is using the pandemic to cover up its actions aimed at increasing its control over people's lives. As many (24%) suspect that the motivation of the authorities is in fact their desire to cover up their own incompetence by imitating some activity.

Some 4,500 people of underprivileged minority groups will be integrated into the labour market through municipal projects funded under the operational programmes "Human Resources Development" and "Science and Education for Smart Growth".

This is according to Ivan Krastev, the chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies based in Sofia, Bulgaria.

In an opinion piece penned for the New York Times, Krastev adds that "Europe's ideological rigidity is admirable, but it is also partly responsible for the region's paralysis."

Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev will deliver two lectures in Greece on the subject "The EU as a Community of European Law and Values" on November 26 and 27, organized by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.