Fundacja im. Stefana Batorego

News

Letter of civil organizations to the OSCE on the 2023 parliamentary elections

Social organizations dealing with various aspects of the elections - including the Batory Foundation - have sent a letter to the OSCE, encouraging it to send a full observation mission to Poland to look not only at events on voting day and during the election campaign, but also at everything that takes place long before it officially begins.

News

Statement on the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court

The Supreme Administrative Court has issued a ruling on the Batory Foundation’s obligation to consider Ordo Iuris Foundation’s request for public information regarding the Citizens for Democracy programme carried out by the Foundation in 2013-2016 from the EEA Financial Mechanism (EEA Grants) 2009-2014. The ruling may affect the situation of many foundations in Poland.

culture

Łódź art museum epitomises failures of Polish government’s cultural policy

Poland’s ministry of culture and national heritage recently announced an open competition recruiting for a new director of the Museum of Art (Muzeum Sztuki) in Łódź. This could be a chance to stave off the crisis that the government has created within the last few months. But there is one condition: the recruitment process itself must be well organised, with the person selected having the knowledge and competences to guarantee the smooth running of one of the most important cultural institutions not only in Poland, but in the whole region – writes Piotr Kosiewski.

Ukraine

Partnership for enlargement: a new way to integrate Ukraine and the EU’s eastern neighbourhood

Russia’s war on Ukraine puts the entire future European order at risk. It is already forcing a profound reconsideration of the EU’s and its neighbours’ interests. The EU needs to devise a new approach to its neighbourhood, similar to the way in which it has rapidly enhanced its security and economic policies to respond to the threat. The EU should establish a Partnership for Enlargement that offers Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Western Balkans states concrete steps towards deeper integration – writes Kai-Olaf Lang nad Piotr Buras.

Ukraine

Voices of Ukraine

When following the news on Russian aggression in Ukraine, we have no doubt that this is where the future is now being made, and that it will largely depend on the men and women of Ukraine. That is why we invite Ukrainian experts, publicists and journalists, as well as people of culture, to talk to us. What makes the Ukrainian resistance so effective, and why is the Ukrainian society so resilient? What are the limitations of a peace agreement? What do the Ukrainians want with regard to the European Union, NATO, and other alliances? What will the relations between Ukraine and its neighbouring countries be like? Let’s hear what they have to say!

Ukraine

Ukraine Solidarity Fund

We launched the Ukraine Solidarity Fund that offers institutional support to social organisations that provide systematic and long-term assistance to people fleeing war in Ukraine. Grants can be awarded to organisations providing direct humanitarian, medical, legal, psychological, social assistance to people crossing the border, as well as those offering long-term support in Poland (including assistance in finding accommodation and employment, child care, adaptation to new conditions, etc.).

Ukraine

Appeal for equal treatment of people fleeing war in Ukraine

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, people fleeing attacks by Russian troops have been coming to Poland. They include Ukrainian citizens as well as people from other countries who have found their home in Ukraine. We should remember that they are all fleeing from the same enemy and are in the same situation. They must all be allowed into Poland and treated on an equal basis. Hence, both the actions at the border itself and the regulations planned by the Polish Government must extend the same level of assistance and protection to all those fleeing.

Ukraine

Standing in solidarity with Ukraine

We, the representatives of civil society organisations in Poland, strongly protest against the attack on independent Ukraine by the troops of the Russian Federation. We express solidarity with the citizens of Ukraine, forced to fight militarily in defence of their country, and all the victims of the aggression, which has been going on since 2014 and to this day has brought death to thousands of people while forcing millions to leave their homes. In this terrible hour of trial you are not alone!

Ukraine

Сила цінностей

В Європі триває війна. 24 лютого 2022 року війська Російської Федерації заатакували Україну. Збройні Сили України дали рішучу відсіч агресору, завдаючи йому великих втрат. Українська держава та її інституції функціонують безперервно, політична влада на загальнодержавному та локальному рівні діє в рамках суспільного мандату. Водночас триває евакуація цивільного населення з теренів, безпосередньо охоплених воєнними діями. Тисячі людей вирушили у напрямку західних регіонів України, багато осіб вирішує перетнути кордон.

Rule of law

The rule of law in Poland in 2021

The contributions included in the present document on the rule of law in Poland, in 2021 are submitted by civil society organisations to the European Commission within the framework of the targeted stakeholder consultation the European Commission launched in relation to its 2022 Annual Rule of Law Report. The document follows the structure and applies the headings of the European Commission’s stakeholder consultation survey.

Debate

The European Green Deal: A recipe for development or a source of conflict?

The green transition presents a particularly daunting challenge in Poland, due to the country’s dependence on coal, strong political polarisation, and populist model of state governance. In such conditions, is it possible to reach a social consensus on the goals and implementation of the green transition? What is the risk that the process will become another source of polarisation and social instability? See the online debate.

Analysis

Legal opinion on the legal consequences of the Constitutional Tribunal ruling

On October 7, 2021 the Polish Constitutional Tribunal ruled that some provisions of the Treaty on European Union are incompatible with the Polish constitution and questioned the powers of the CJEU to rule on the independence of the judiciary in Poland. What are the legal consequences of this ruling? Legal opinion written by Piotr Bogdanowicz.

Debate

Should the EU fear Polexit?

The ruling of the government-controlled Constitutional Tribunal opens the next stage of the political and legal confrontation between the Polish government and the European Union. During the online debate by ECFR Warsaw and ideaForum of the Batory Foundation we will discuss what are the consequences of judgment for Poland and for the European Union. We will ask experts whether Poland has actually entered the path of polexit and what the EU should do to defend its legal space and protect the authority of the CJEU.

Rule of law

Statement on the CT decision on the compatibility of the Treaty on UE with the Polish Constitution

The Constitutional Tribunal decision directly undermines the principles that Poland committed to when it joined the EU in 2004. The ruling on the unconstitutionality of the TUE provisions is not only a blatant violation of EU law, but also a violation of the Polish Constitution, based on which Poland respects the international law - writes The Legal Experts Group of the Batory Foundation.

Rule of law

Statement on the CT ruling on interim measures imposed by the Court of Justice of the EU

Legal Experts Group: The so-called “reforms” of the Polish judiciary introduced over the past few years are actually destroying it. They violate both the Constitution and European Union law, because the Constitution and the founding Treaties are built on the same axiological basis – the values of the democratic state and the rule of law.

Rule of law

What kind of Europe will EU funds reconstruct?

The European Union is not merely a community based on democracy and the rule of law. It is also an organisation which functions in a way advantageous to undemocratic governments and may strengthen their authoritarian impulses.

Rule of law

EU Recovery Fund Could Bolster Autocrats; Brussels Needs to Act

A breakdown of the rule of law in Poland from an upcoming ruling by its constitutional court and the parallel inflow of huge EU funds will prove a toxic mix with ramifications for the entire bloc - writes Piotr Buras.

Analysis

Citizens’ Involvement in Public Procurement Decisions

In public policy, in which party programmes translate into specific public decisions, closer contact with citizens was deemed to make these decisions not only more acceptable for society but also qualitatively better and closer to the realities of everyday life - writes Grzegorz Makowski.

Analysis

CGFLI: a needs-based or a politics-based scheme?

The Central Government Fund for Local Investments created a divide into categories of "better" and "worse" or "our" and "your" local authorities. With an extremely non-transparent procedure and arbitrary evaluation criteria, the money seems to have been split based on the local authority’s political colours.

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Publications

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Demokratyczny paradoks w praktyce: doświadczenia młodych aktywistów i aktywistek

Chronić ludność czy swoją władzę. Projekt ustawy o ochronie ludności oraz o stanie klęski żywiołowej

Krzysztof Burnetko

Społeczny projekt ustawy o Trybunale Konstytucyjnym

Z deszczu pod rynnę. Pseudorozwiązanie

Jarosław Flis

Program Inwestycji Strategicznych dla terenów popegeerowskich: realne czy pozorne wsparcie?

Paweł Swianiewicz

Zmiany w sądownictwie a uczciwość procesu wyborczego

Agata Pyrzyńska

Jak kolejki zabijają solidarność. Dlaczego bez poprawy dostępu do usług społecznych nie będzie skutecznej polityki integracyjnej cudzoziemców

Paweł Marczewski

Projekt ustawy o ochronie ludności oraz o stanie klęski żywiołowej – nowa wersja, nowe treści?

Hubert Izdebski

Ekologia we francuskich wyborach 2022 roku

Miłosz Tatara,
Olivier Schneider

Finansowanie kampanii wyborczych. Wybrane problemy

Marcin Walecki

Ukraina mówi: #5 Wyrabianie cyfrowej odporności

Krzysztof Izdebski

Voices of Ukraine #5: Developing cyber resilience

Krzysztof Izdebski
and others

Zielony Ład i Ukraina

Natalia Andrusewycz

Nawigowanie w czasach niepewności. Polskie społeczeństwo na tle innych krajów europejskich

Alicja Dańkowska

Ukraina mówi: #4 Ukraińska tożsamość w lustrze wojny

Edwin Bendyk
and others

Voices of Ukraine: #4 Ukrainian identity reflected by war

Andrij Portnow
and others

Korekta demograficzna: najpilniejsze zmiany w okręgach wyborczych do Sejmu i Senatu

Jacek Haman

Janosikowe kumotry – podwójne standardy rządowych dotacji

Jarosław Flis,
Paweł Swianiewicz

Partnership for Enlargement. The commentaries

Maryna Jaroszewycz
and others

Voices of Ukraine #3: Ukraine after the war

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