The Prague Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation was established on August 21, 1990, exactly 22 years after the Prague Spring uprising was crushed by the Warsaw Pact. The Prague office was the foundation’s first-ever office abroad, and until late 2004 it was located in a solar-powered house with an organic garden in Prague’s Barrandov district. In early 2005 we moved into a new office in the city centre. The Prague Office has been linked to the foundation’s regional office for Central and Eastern Europe in Warsaw since 2005.

For 2007-2009 our main focus will be on two issues: Energy policy/climate protection and the future of Europe. Our office is responsible for the energy and climate-related policies and activities of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine. Our programmes aim to foster local awareness about climate change and climate protection in the region, as well as to help establish a progressive, long-lasting discourse on energy and climate policy. Furthermore, we aim to analyse individual national energy strategies and to support both the development of renewable energies and increased energy efficiency in the region.

The second main focus of our work is on the future of Europe. We hope to help discover how the enlargement and continued integration of Europe can work hand in hand with issues such as women’s rights, political participation, foreign affairs and security policy. In order to stimulate discussion about the future of the European project from a Green perspective, we are organising conferences and talks by experts on several Europe-related topics together with other organisations.

As part of our programmes we also support the activities of several of our project partners, which include numerous joint events and activities. Moreover, we work to strengthen the network of our partner organisations across the region, as well as to promote the integration of Central and Eastern European actors at EU level. The Prague Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation also collaborates closely with the parliamentary group of the Czech Green Party.