The European Stability Initiative (ESI) is a

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...

focusing on South East Europe and

enlargement of the European Union The European Union (EU) has expanded a number of times throughout its history by way of the accession of new member states to the Union. To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria ...

. It has offices in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

History

The ESI was founded in June 1999 in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajev ...

. Its founders, multi-national practitioners and analysts, were members of international organisations like the

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...

, the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

or the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

.Einer, der auszog, Europa zu verstehen
(German). ''

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History Th ...

''. Retrieved January 2017 It was founded as a research network to advance the integration of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

into the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

following the end of the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the w ...

. ESI's founding chairman is Gerald Knaus. In 2000, ESI opened its first offices, in Berlin and Brussels. In 2004, ESI opened an office in Istanbul and launched its first initiatives on

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

's social and economic developments in the context of EU accession. In June 2007, ESI began to work on a documentary series called “Balkan Express/Return to Europe”. The films cover the stories of people fighting for democratic values in ten countries (Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey). From April 2008 onwards, the films were broadcast, first on the German language channels 3sat and ORF and then on television worldwide. In late 2008, Return to Europe was awarded the "Erasmus Euro Media Grand Award" for outstanding European media production by the European Society for Education and Communication (ESEC). ESEC Chairman Thomas A. Bauer noted that the series "combined inspired directing with sound scientific research". Between 2012 and 2016, ESI focused its research on the human rights situation in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

, EU enlargement methodology, the EU-Turkey visa liberalisation process, the EU approach to economic issues in the Western Balkan countries and the Syrian refugee crisis.

Work

ESI is a non-profit organisation and is financed by donations. As of 2013, its projects on EU enlargement, capacity building, and human rights were funded by the

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency ( sv, Styrelsen för internationellt utvecklingssamarbete, ) is a government agency of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Sida is responsible for organization of the bulk of Swede ...

Stiftung Mercator A stiftung () (properly ''Stiftung'', pl. ''Stiftungen'') is an institution/foundation which, with the aid of a property, pursues a purpose determined by the founder. A ''stiftung foundation'' exists to give effect to the stated, non-commercial wi ...

, the Open Society Foundations, and

ERSTE Stiftung Erste Group Bank AG (Erste Group) is an Austrian financial service provider in Central and Eastern Europe serving 15.7 million clients in over 2,700 branches in seven countries. History Erste Group was founded in October 1819 as ''Erste österr ...

. In 2006, the ESI had a monthly budget of 45,000 euro. In 2013, the ESI had produced more than 62 reports.ESI: European Stability Initiative
.

Europaeum The Europaeum is a network of eighteen universities in Europe. It was conceived of in 1990–1991 by Lord Weidenfeld and Sir Ronnie Grierson and they persuaded Roy Jenkins, who had just become Chancellor of the University of Oxford, to push ...

. Retrieved 4 August 2013 Today it counts with 100 background analyses and policy recommendations.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.esiweb.org/, European Stability Initiative official website
Think Tank Directory Germany

Return to Europe website
Political and economic think tanks based in Germany 1999 establishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina Think tanks established in 1999 Non-profit organisations based in Berlin Organizations based in Sarajevo European integration think tanks