Bundling programs: The opening of the Center for Central and Eastern Europe of Robert Bosch Stiftung at the DGAP in Berlin

Stuttgart/Berlin – May 15, 2007

At the opening of the Robert Bosch Stiftung Center for Central and Eastern Europe at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin, Dr. Ingrid Hamm, Director of the Management Board of Robert Bosch Stiftung, said this evening (19:00):

"The countries of Central and Eastern Europe represent the heart of Europe. It is one of the great success stories of history that Europe has now overcome the difficult legacies of the twentieth century and is once again united and on the road to seeing itself as a community and acting together in the interests of all. Europe's eastern policies depend on the experiences and relationships of former eastern bloc countries that are now members of the EU. However, the new member countries also face challenges and need our support. Political developments in some of these countries are not yet keeping pace with their economic advance. This makes it vital to establish competent elites and build political, scientific, and civil society networks between Germany and its neighboring countries to the east.

All these tasks and challenges can not be overcome by government action alone. Our founder, Robert Bosch, was aware of this very early on. He believed that international reconciliation and cooperation were the most important prerequisites for breaking free of the cycle of war and violence. After the fundamental upheavals of 1989 and 1990, Robert Bosch Stiftung developed international programs in Central and Eastern Europe.

A shared language and mutual cultural understanding remain the foundations on which these programs work to attain big goals like freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, more professionalism in journalism, a stronger civil society, and reforms in public administration. To achieve these things, we systematically invest in people, meetings, and dialog. The DGAP has been a reliable cooperation partner in these endeavors for over 25 years.

The large number of programs for Central and Eastern Europe that we have implemented with the DGAP prompted the foundation to set up the Robert Bosch Stiftung Center for Central and Eastern Europe at the DGAP. The task of the center will be to collate and coordinate the foundation's programs at the DGAP - including the Diplomats' College and management of the seminars of the Program for Young Executives from Central Europe.

Our shared goal is to interlink future political, administrative, and scientific leaders and enable them to cooperate with the two institutions and their respective networks."