For social democracy, foreign policy has always been a policy of peace. Today progressives have to deal with a situation in Europe where peace is in danger. To this end, the EU’s eastern policy should concern itself with a future security structure.

With this publication, three social democratic institutions — the Dutch Foundation Max van der Stoel (FMS), the Polish Amicus Europae Foundation of Aleksander Kwasniewski, and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung — have tried to get closer to formulating progressive positions on policy towards Eastern Europe.

Even though such discussions still remain controversial on the national level, the five positions presented from Bulgaria, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Romania stem from two meetings in Berlin and Warsaw that brought together politicians, civil society representatives, and experts from different European countries to discuss the contours of a social democratic eastern policy.