GMF South and Wider Europe

GMF's South and Wider Europe Program focuses on the "Global South", which plays an increasingly important role amid geopolitical shifts; the Mediterranean, a crossroads for trade, energy, migration, and security; and the Balkans and Black Sea regions, which are vital to Europe’s economic and political trajectory. The program consists of three strands. 

• The South strand helps forge a shared North–South understanding of international security, competitiveness, and global order. With a geographical footprint spanning Brussels, Ankara, and Madrid, it draws on a wider network of experts in Lagos, Paris, Jerusalem, and São Paulo. Its inclusive trilateral convening and in-depth analysis bring voices and priorities from the Mediterranean and the wider Southern Hemisphere into traditional Northern debates and vice versa. 

• The Balkans strand advances transatlantic cooperation and the Euro-Atlantic integration of the Western Balkans through policy dialogue, research, and leadership development that strengthen democratic governance. It achieves these goals by combining policy engagement with strategic grantmaking to support civil society initiatives, regional collaboration, and evidence-based solutions across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.  

• The Black Sea strand strengthens regional cooperation, civil society, and democratic foundations in the wider Black Sea region through research, track-two and -three dialogues, fact-finding missions, and grant-making. Combining policy engagement with strategic grantmaking, it supports regional cooperation, dialogue, security, stability, and welfare in countries such as Armenia, Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Türkiye, and Ukraine.