The George Soros Open Society Foundations, which actively support democratic values: human rights, independent media and non-profit organizations, have decided to scale back its programs in the European Union. BBC Russian Service reports.
There is information that the 93-year-old Soros recently handed over management of the foundations to his son Alexander, and he started restructuring of the world giant of philanthropy with assets of $25 billion.
As part of this reform, Open Society will almost completely stop funding projects in 27 EU countries, but will continue to support civil society on the periphery of Europe.
«The new strategy provides for the withdrawal and termination of a significant part of current projects in the European Union and shifting of attention and resources to other parts of the world,» Bloomberg and Reuters quoted internal correspondence between the foundations. «We will almost completely stop funding projects in the European Union,» the media reported, citing internal correspondence between management in America and foundations in Hungary, Soros’s homeland.
The Soros Foundations will continue to support human rights, democracy and accountability in the region, especially in Ukraine, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and the Balkans through the national foundations network.
What the new grant structure will look like will only be clear in a few months.
