The Helsinki Debate on Europe in May 2025

The year 2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, one of the most significant diplomatic achievements in European history. 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 will not only discuss the values guiding international relations in the post-Cold War era, but also sound out the prospects of getting back to a rule-based world order. What new spaces for negotiation and regulation can be formed in Europe and the world? Is this at all an option in the current geopolitical constellation?

In any case, current conflicts – Russia’s war on Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East after 7 October 2023 – make the need for reform of the international system painfully obvious. For many this situation is revealing the hypocrisy in the European concept of universal values.

So, what does it look like, the world of tomorrow?

Finland is at the moment one of the places in Europe where the end of the post-Cold War order is most visible. Its history between east and west makes Finland’s recent social development and geopolitical choices a revealing litmus test, helping us to understand the tectonic shifts currently affecting Europe, from north to south.

From 15 to 18 May 2025, the Helsinki Debate on Europe will address all this and much more in public speeches and panel discussions, in literary readings as well as internal sessions and briefings. The event features leading Finnish and international writers, intellectuals, and representatives of both politics and civil society. The full programme will be published soon.

Watch this space!

The Helsinki Debate on Europe is organized by the S. Fischer Foundation, the German Academy for Language and Literature, the Finnland-Institut and Hanaholmen, the Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre, in cooperation with further local partners.