Atlas Network is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2026 Europe Liberty Award, recognizing some of the region’s most outstanding achievements advancing individual liberty, free enterprise, and the institutions of a free society.

The award will be presented at Europe Liberty Forum, which will be held in Berlin, Germany, on May 21–22, 2026. Europe Liberty Forum convenes leading freedom champions from across the continent to exchange ideas, strengthen partnerships, and advance practical solutions to the challenges facing free societies today. The Europe Liberty Award honors organizations whose work demonstrates measurable impact, institutional courage, and a long-term commitment to advancing liberty in their countries and communities.

The Europe Liberty Award is part of the Templeton Freedom Award prize program sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust, named for the late investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton. In addition to Europe, the program sponsors awards in Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East & North Africa. Its grand prize, the Templeton Freedom Award, is presented annually during Atlas Network’s Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner in New York City. The prize program provides significant grant funding to high-achieving organizations making innovative contributions to economic freedom and human flourishing.

This year’s three finalists are Freedom Research Association, Institut Ostrom Catalunya, and Lithuanian Free Market Institute.

Freedom Research Association (Turkey)

At a time when democratic institutions in Turkey face mounting political pressure, Freedom Research Association has become one of the country’s leading independent voices defending the rule of law, constitutional government, and liberal reform.

Through its “Promoting Structural Reforms in Turkey” initiative, the organization has spent six years building the country’s most comprehensive independent roadmap for institutional renewal. Its work examines judicial independence, media freedom, monetary stability, legislative accountability, and constitutional reform—while offering concrete, market-oriented alternatives grounded in liberal democratic principles.

Freedom Research Association’s reports have moved beyond academic analysis into real political impact. Its research has informed parliamentary questions, legislative proposals, official committee findings, and policy debates across Turkey’s political spectrum. The organization has also built a rare cross-ideological coalition of academics, journalists, reformers, and policymakers committed to preserving institutional checks on state power.

Operating in an increasingly constrained civic environment, Freedom Research Association has demonstrated that principled, evidence-based advocacy can still shape public debate and preserve the possibility of a freer future.

By defending institutional independence and advancing structural reforms that strengthen individual liberty and accountable government, Freedom Research Association is helping preserve the foundations of a free society in Turkey.

Institut Ostrom Catalunya (Spain)

In Catalonia, excessive bureaucracy and regulatory complexity had increasingly become barriers to entrepreneurship, investment, housing, and industrial growth.

Through its multi-year “Catalonia Deregulated” initiative, Institut Ostrom Catalunya has led one of Europe’s most ambitious civil-society campaigns to reduce administrative burdens and expand economic freedom through structural deregulation.

Beginning in 2020, the organization developed a comprehensive strategy combining policy research, international benchmarking, coalition-building, media engagement, and direct legislative advocacy. Its proposals helped drive major reforms simplifying licensing, permitting, urban planning, and environmental procedures across both regional and municipal governments.

The initiative contributed to reforms that reduced bureaucratic barriers for hundreds of thousands of businesses and self-employed workers, accelerated renewable energy and industrial projects, and strengthened legal certainty for entrepreneurs and investors. Institut Ostrom Catalunya’s work has also reshaped public debate by reframing bureaucracy not as a technical inconvenience, but as a direct obstacle to prosperity, innovation, and opportunity.

By reducing government-imposed barriers to enterprise and reinforcing the conditions for entrepreneurship and economic dynamism, Institut Ostrom Catalunya is helping build a freer and more prosperous society in Spain.

Lithuanian Free Market Institute (Lithuania)

The Lithuanian Free Market Institute is reshaping how a new generation understands freedom, responsibility, and citizenship.

Through its groundbreaking “I, Citizen” initiative, the organization has transformed civic and economic education in Lithuania by integrating economics, ethics, and civics into a unified, liberty-centered curriculum. Officially approved within Lithuania’s national education system, the program now reaches approximately 90,000 students nationwide and has trained more than 1,200 educators.

Rather than teaching citizenship as abstract institutional theory, I, Citizen encourages students to see themselves as free and responsible moral agents capable of shaping their own lives and communities. Students explore real-world issues—including entrepreneurship, migration, media literacy, and public responsibility—through the lens of individual liberty, voluntary cooperation, and civic participation.

The initiative has also become a model beyond Lithuania’s borders, with partner organizations in Poland, Latvia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Greece adapting the curriculum for their own educational systems.

At a moment when authoritarianism and state dependency are once again gaining influence across parts of Europe, Lithuanian Free Market Institute is helping cultivate a generation better equipped to defend the principles of a free society.

By strengthening the culture of liberty through education, leadership formation, and civic responsibility, Lithuanian Free Market Institute is building a freedom movement that will endure for generations.

“Across Europe today, free societies face mounting pressure from authoritarianism, bureaucratic overreach, institutional distrust, and growing skepticism toward the principles that made prosperity and human flourishing possible,” said Atlas Network CEO Brad Lips. “But throughout the continent, courageous leaders are proving that freedom still has champions willing to do the difficult work of institutional reform, cultural renewal, and principled advocacy.

“In Turkey, Spain, and Lithuania, the organizations we recognize today are defending the foundations of a free society in very different ways—strengthening democratic institutions, expanding economic freedom, and cultivating a new generation that understands the responsibilities of liberty. Their work reminds us that freedom is never self-sustaining. It depends on determined individuals and organizations willing to invest patiently in ideas, institutions, and leadership capable of securing liberty for the future.”

Learn more about our upcoming regional liberty forums: https://www.atlasnetwork.org/e...