Helsinki – ESI debating Europe’s future

17 May 2025
Helsinki’s main train station flies, like many buildings in the city, the Ukrainian flag. Photo: Kristof Bender
Helsinki’s main train station flies, like many buildings in the city, the Ukrainian flag. Photo: Kristof Bender

Kristof Bender participated in the Helsinki Debate on Europe which took place from 15 to 18 May 2025 in Helsinki, Finland.

Debates on Europe is a series of events hosted since 2012 in places where the idea of Europe is at stake, organised by the S. Fischer Foundation and the German Academy for Language and Literature in co-operation with local partners, in this case Hanaholmen and Finnland Institut.

The event in Helsinki took partly place in the carefully newly renovated Finlandia Hall where the Helsinki Final Act was signed in 1975. This was the beginning of the end of the Cold War. The 1975 agreement established the equality and territorial integrity of states, which in Moscow was interpreted as a great success. At the same time, however, the Helsinki document’s emphasis on Human Rights provided inspiration for both Charta 77 in Czechoslovakia and Solidarność in Poland – and, ultimately, the revolutions of 1989 and following years.

Fifty years on, the Helsinki Debate on Europe focused on current challenges in Europe, from the war in Ukraine over the decay of international values to challenges to stability in the Western Balkans.