Reviewing 2025
Together with our new Executive Director, Seyran Bostancı, we look back on 2025: on the development of new projects and the continuation of existing ones, and on some of the many current crises and challenges in Europe and the world. We also provide an initial outlook on our activities in the coming year.
Dear readers,
As the new Executive Director of the Schwarzkopf Foundation Young Europe, I am delighted to welcome you to the last edition of our newsletter in 2025.
Having stepped into this role at a time of fast-paced and profound societal
transformation, I see it as a great responsibility to further develop the work of the foundation. When talking to people in civil society, in education, but also more broadly in politics, academia and in everyday life, one quickly realises, how vital our mission is: to empower young people to actively shape a democratic, inclusive and future-oriented Europe is, to me, the only way forward.
I am deeply impressed by the breadth and depth of the foundation’s networks and the inspiring young people at their heart. My own work over the past years – at the intersection of democratic citizenship education, digitalisation and social justice – has shown me how urgently we need strong, youth-led spaces of exchange and empowerment. Being able to continue this work here, together with such a dedicated team and committed partners, is both a privilege and a responsibility I take to heart.
The past weeks have been marked by exciting activities across the foundation: from advancing our work on democracy in the digital sphere through Zukunft D, and amplifying young postmigrant voices in the exhibition of the MuJu-project in Chemnitz, one of this year’s European Capitals of Culture, to the meeting of the Rebuild Ukraine Ambassadors in Lviv and the latest Transnational Training in Istanbul.
I invite you to look back with us on the past year – and throw a first glance at what’s next in 2026. Looking forward to shaping the future of Young Europe together!