In a letter to the European Commission and the European governments, a group of international scientists, journalists and writers call for the establishment of an Eastern European University based on the model of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence or the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder. The arrest of the journalist Roman Protassewitsch recently showed that declarations of support, the closure of airspaces and boycott threats by politicians were not enough to take effective action against the massive human rights violations in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
"What we need is an integrative approach to Eastern politics that complements traditional diplomacy by including citizens," says Eva Illouz, Timothy Snyder, Olga Tokarczuk, Judith Butler, Slavoj Žižek and more than fifty other scientists signed appeal. The "Eastern European University" should "open up new opportunities for the dismissed, oppressed and persecuted and enable students to receive an education according to European standards". The financing must come from public and private institutions, the location should be a country of the European Union.