CIDOB and OSIFE, Open Society Initiative for Europe

Last October 17th 2012, Open Society Foundations, one of the biggest philanthropic organizations in the world, announced the establishment of the Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIFE) in Barcelona, and the appointment of Mr. Jordi Vaquer, the current director of CIDOB, as its director. This new organization will work with actors and associations of very diverse nature ( educational, cultural, political, youth, businesses, trade unions and academia). The appointment of Mr. Vaquer will be fully effective from the 1st of January 2013. From its headquarters in Barcelona, OSIFE will operate in a transnational manner, including operating from other cities of the European Union. With that, Barcelona will become an important reference to civil society organizations devoted to reinforcing democracy and European Integration while connecting them to the aspirations of the European citizens.In response to the social, political and cultural changes that the crisis has been generating in the European Union, OSIFE will cooperate with the civil society organizations to reinforce alternative ideas of Europe as an open society, and seek to slow down the erosion of European values and liberties that we all have been experiencing in recent times. 

Since George Soros, the philanthropist who founded and lead Open Society Foundations, created his first foundation in Hungary in 1984, this organization has focused its activity in Europe on the mobilization of the civil society, an endeavour that will continue and intensify with OSIFE’s settlement in Barcelona.