Annual Report 2022

The widening of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has implications for all of Stiftung Mercator’s thematic fields. However, the questions it raises for Europe in the World are more fundamental than for any other centre: Russia’s nationwide attack of Ukraine not only constitutes a blatant violation of a core principle of international relations, namely the sovereignty of a state. It also heralds a departure from the fundamental values of an international order in which peace was guaranteed by mutual dependencies, and economic, industrial and cultural ties were accepted despite different forms of governance and state.

We must understand that the European security order, which has been in place since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union a good 30 years ago, is no longer in place. Russia’s aggressive strategy in Ukraine is characterized by a deliberately imperial, antiliberal and anti-Western ideology – with serious consequences for the European and international order.

2022 thus marked the start of a strategic reflection on the premises, objectives and intended impacts of our work in Europe in the World. The changing international order is the starting point for our modified strategy, details of which are now available on our website.

Based on a new and inclusive European self-image, we have already been able to initiate new projects, e.g. with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Global Public Policy Institute and the German Council on Foreign Relations, which engage with Europe’s alliances and interests. By continuing our strategic cooperation with the Istanbul Policy Center at Sabancı University and our funding of contemporary Turkey research at the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, we have stepped up our focus on Turkey.

Working in China has become more difficult as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and against the backdrop of domestic policy developments. The spaces for transnational dialogue and cooperation activities have been restricted by law, ideologically oriented and embedded within security policy. We wish to explore how we can ensure that the work we pursue in our second area of regional focus also remains effective in future.

The effects of the climate crisis are also becoming increasingly noticeable in Europe and Germany. The last seven years have been the hottest worldwide since records began. Each decade since the 1980s has been hotter than the previous one. With heatwaves, droughts, low water levels, forest fires and the threat of water shortages in many regions of Europe, the summer of 2022 made it abundantly clear once again that global warming is by no means some abstract future risk but is in fact already having a concrete impact on people, infrastructures and economies.

The coronavirus pandemic, and above all Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and its consequences, have resulted in the public focusing less on the subject of global warming. The youth movement’s widespread mobilization for climate action has ebbed away – in its place we are seeing forms of protest that, while attracting considerable media attention, have not been able to foster a more conciliatory discourse nor generate any impetus for targeted political measures aimed at achieving the climate targets.

In 2022, we therefore focused on consolidating the key elements of our strategy: making the transition to climate neutrality socially just, addressing conflicts over targets, and thereby bringing about greater societal support for climate action. Together with the International Council on Clean Transportation, we want to ensure that social aspects are taken into consideration as electric mobility is expanded in Germany by continuing the alliance for socially compatible mobility: within the framework of this initiative, unions are working together with environmental, social and welfare associations, as well as with the Protestant Church, to draw up guidelines and recommendations for a mobility transition that is fair for everyone.

In cooperation with Universität Hamburg, we intend to report regularly in future on the social trends that are still preventing the climate targets from being reached, and on what needs to be done to change this. We want to encourage people to engage in a dialogue that extends beyond the technical and economic feasibility of climate action and includes the question of the social plausibility of this transition. In view of further rising emissions and the fact that we have less and less time to reach our climate targets, we hope that this will allow us to conduct the essential debates and adjust the necessary levers.

The business models of leading platforms and the algorithmic systems upon which they are based have been suspected for some time of contributing to the spread of disinformation and hatred and to the polarization of society. Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the targeted dissemination of disinformation by anti-democratic forces in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine attracted growing interest in this topic even among non-experts in 2022.

Yet last year also gave rise to hopes of a more democratic Digital Society: the European Union adopted the Digital Services Act and the Digital Market Act to regulate digital platforms – these are seen as milestones in digital regulation. The debate about the proposed Artificial Intelligence Act has also gathered momentum.

In our thematic field of Digital Society, we are committed to strengthening civil society’s contribution to the digital policy discourse. In this context, we provided funding in 2022 to support the work of the civil society organizations EDRi, AlgorithmWatch, Open Knowledge Foundation and Superrr Labs, among others. At the Bits & Bäume conference we fund, civil society stakeholders involved in digital policy met with representatives of the climate movement to identify common positions, to network and to learn from one another. An exchange of views among and networking of different stakeholders also play a central role at the Roundtable series on the ethical development of artificial intelligence that we initiated in cooperation with the Gesellschaft für Informatik. The platform brings those responsible for AI in companies of different sizes together with a view to discussing the practical implementation of AI ethical guidelines.

Scientific research and the transfer of research findings into policymaking form an important part of our work. With the aid of our funding, for example, the universities of Bonn and Cambridge are conducting research from a philosophical perspective into the interplay between digital technologies, concepts of what it means to be human, values and norms in different cultural contexts. Our biggest project in 2022 was the establishment of Agora Democratic Democratization, a new think tank aimed at strengthening democracy and its capacity to act in a digitized society. Engaging in exchange with policymakers, government, business, science and civil society, it develops scientifically funded yet practical analyses for digital policymaking.

Germany is a country of immigration – that has been obvious since the major influx of refugees in 2015, if not before. By the end of 2022, more than one million more people had arrived in Germany seeking a safe haven since Russia began its large-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. Migrants need fair opportunities to participate in social, political and economic life. In times of multiple crises such as the energy crisis and rising inflation, it is important to maintain cohesion and counter the growing polarization of our society. People need to feel politically and socially involved so that they can engage with each other on an equal footing and have trust in the democratic system.

This is where the project “Strengthening participation in arrival neighbourhoods” comes in, helping those communities throughout Germany that are particularly affected by immigration to draw up participation concepts. Through our project “Democratically Strong Police – Structural Anchoring of Democracy Work in the Police Force” we want to raise awareness of the need to deal with diversity in power-sensitive structures. Our funding project “Diversify” increases the representation of deprived groups in politics by motivating young, socially or culturally disadvantaged people to actively contribute to political decision-making processes.

What awaits us in 2023? It is very important to us to provide practical support to the German government’s planned reforms aimed at increasing participation on the labour market, giving non-Germans opportunities to obtain citizenship and offering tolerated persons better prospects of permanent residence. We want to help decision-makers in this area to fill these reforms with life in a needs-based, pragmatic and innovative manner. Furthermore, we concentrate on formats that facilitate encounters and participation and work together with other stakeholders to strengthen social cohesion.