Summit for Democracy

Hungary is the only EU member (and second NATO ally, after Turkey) to be snubbed by US President Joseph Biden’s Summit for Democracy in December. Poland faces two hearings from the EU's legal bodies: a verdict from the European Court of Human Rights on the Extraordinary Audit Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court and the National Council of Judiciary, as well as another ruling on the Turów coal mine dispute with Czechia. Warsaw is offering the Czechs 50 million euros in ‘financial contribution’ in hopes of brokering an agreement. Bulgarian parliamentary and presidential elections are on Sunday — incumbent President Rumen Radev is the favourable candidate while the new party headed by finance and economy minister of the caretaker government, ‘We Continue the Change’, is gathering potential to break the country’s political deadlock. Scott Cullinane, Helmut Schmidt fellow at the German Marshall Fund, breaks down the testimonies on democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland delivered last week at a Congressional hearing of the Helsinki Commission; including the advocacy for a reassessment of US ‘force posture’ vis-a-vis Poland and NATO suggested by Heather Conley, head of the German Marshal Fund think tank. Special addition episode on the potential for conflict escalation in Bosnia delivered by Visegrad Insight’s Programme Manager Tetiana Poliak-Grujić. To understand why the political crisis is becoming more and more inflammable with the potential of undermining all post-Balkan-War stability efforts in the region, she speaks with Professor Miloš Šolaja from the University of Banja Luka (BiH) and Marta Szpala from the Centre of Eastern Studies (PL). This conversation is part of the Visegrad Insight's Western Balkans Futures project that is supported by the International Visegrad Fund.  Other participants of the project: Albanian Institute for International Studies (Albania), Foundation BFPE for a Responsible Society (Serbia), EUROTHINK – Center for European Strategies (North Macedonia), Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (Hungary), Prague Security Studies Institute (Czechia), Slovak Foreign Policy Association (Slovakia).