If you have problems displaying this email, follow this link

Negotiating the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) – the long-term budget 2028-2034 at the centre of EU policy action – will be a very difficult exercise. This week’s newsletter begins the conversation on the MFF approaching in July. We’ll need to ensure that, while creating space for new priorities like defence, the new EU budget maintains a strong capacity for transformational policies and essential European public goods, while protecting social rights and mainstreaming the green transition.

Alongside this discussion, FEPS has continued to research and listen to voices from Palestine, Serbia and Kenya. Among the topics explored this week are gender and AI, EU migration agenda, EU budget, industrial policies, intergenerational fairness and more – read on to find out more! 

⏱️ Short on time? Find inspiration in our two-page recommendation summary.

Read FEPS Secretary General László Andor’s input as he discusses the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework proposal for the online magazine Encompass. Read more.

“20,000 orphans. 86,000 amputated children. What future are we giving them?”

As the war on Gaza continues, and while much of the international community remains silent, Palestinians face mass displacement, starvation, and the systematic destruction of civilian life—from homes and schools to hospitals and water systems.

Omar exposes the human cost of the war, including more than 16,500 children killed (source: Palestinian Ministry of Health) challenges Western media narratives, and reminds us that this is not just about Gaza. The illegal colonisation of the West Bank and the deliberate obstruction of Palestinian statehood are part of the same brutal reality.

Upcoming events

See full schedule

📅  11 JUNE

📍BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Towards gender-inclusive digital policy

This conference will explore the intersection of gender inequality and the transformative impact of AI in the workplace with solutions rooted in the principles of social democracy. 

How can we encourage EU and national institutions to take a more proactive approach to fully integrating women’s rights into digital policies? This will be one of the questions this in-person public event will address. Ivana Bartoletti, author of FEPS Primer ‘A Digital Union based on European values‘, will deliver the keynote speech. 

📅  19-21 JUNE

📍SIENA, ITALY

Siena Vision Conference on the Europe of the Future – 2025

Time to be bold

Around 80 intellectuals, policymakers, entrepreneurs, managers, journalists, economists and students will gather in Siena for a conversation on Europe’s future and its challenges. 

FEPS will organise two fringe events on: 

• The next EU budget and beyond
• The challenge of industrial policies

📅  26 JUNE

📍FEPS HQ

Serbia’s ‘journey of hope’

From students’ protests to political changes

The tragic collapse of the Novi Sad railway station canopy exposed Serbian local authorities’ negligence and corruption, and sparked a powerful national movement, led by students, who took to the streets to demand justice, accountability and democratic reforms.

This public conference will examine this historic moment. Hear from Serbian and European voices as they reflect on the impact of the protests and explore the prospects for real political change in Serbia and the wider Western Balkans. 

📅  30 JUNE

📍SEVILLA, SPAIN

Financing our future

Crafting a progressive vision for the future of financing for development

On the occasion of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), which is taking place in Sevilla, FEPS is organising two events, one of which is an official UN side event.

Among the high-level speakers of FEPS’ fringe event, we will count on María Jesús Montero, First Vice President of the Spanish government, and Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of Economics at the University College London.

We will propose concrete strategies to contribute to a renewed global financial architecture that is just and inclusive and to boost the implementation of the Pact for the Future and the 2030 Sustainable Agenda.

Past events

See all past events

In the lead-up to the Financing for Development conference in Sevilla, the group explored the current financial landscape for feminist organisations and shared good practices and strategies in resilience and resource mobilisation for FFP.

This dossier sheds light on the far right’s higher education agenda:

• Far-right approaches to education in Europe by Anja Giudici
• When academia stands up: Serbia’s higher education under siege by Jovana Karaulić
• A suffocating embrace? by Eszter Neumann

📚 Read more.

In this dossier, we showcase the historical opportunities we have, offer encouragement and stop defeatism:

• The ideological pursuit of a modern, empowering state by Patrick Diamond and Ania Skrzypek
• Returning to freedom: a Social Democracy for pluralist societies by Dominic Afscharian
• Social democracy, digital revolution and digital capitalism in the future by Ivana Bartoletti
• Social democracy, a new take on internationalism and pragmatic pacifism by Nicoletta Pirozzi

📚 Read more.

Was this email forwarded to you?

Copyright © 2025 FEPS Europe, All rights reserved.

You are receiving this email because you participated in one of FEPS’ events and/or have registered for FEPS’ newsletter.

If you wish not to receive FEPS’ communications anymore, please click here: unsubscribe now

Foundation for European Progressive Studies
Avenue des Arts, 46 – 1000 Bruxelles

+32 223 46 900 – info@feps-europe.eu