Organizations from Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Georgia named finalists for Atlas Network's 2025 Europe Liberty Award

Atlas Network is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2025 Europe Liberty Award, which will be presented at the 2025 Europe Liberty Forum taking place in Brussels, Belgium on May 22nd and 23rd. Co-hosted by Atlas Network alongside the Belgium-based ECIPE and EPICENTER, the event is a unique platform to discuss the most current obstacles and opportunities facing the region in a vibrant European capital, in addition to celebrating three of the world’s leading freedom champions.

More information about the 2025 Europe Liberty Forum, which will be held at the Hotel Le Plaza Brussels, can be found here.

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 at Atlas Network’s Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner in New York City. In 2025, the prize program will award $270,000 in grants to high-achieving organizations that make innovative contributions to economic freedom and human progress.

This year’s three European finalists are Association Multi (Bosnia and Herzegovina), European Policy Information Center (EPICENTER), and Georgia’s Future Academy:

Association Multi

To strengthen the rule of law and economic freedom in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Association Multi established a legal and economic expert team that advocates on behalf of employers’ associations to enact free-market reforms. Association Multi’s “business liberation team” has held regular talks with politicians and employers since 2023, securing amendments to existing laws and blocking new anti-business legislation through its advocacy work with parliamentarians. For example, the business liberation team has helped stop a new $15 million tax on gasoline, halt an anti-competition car insurance law, block a tariff on electric energy, update labor law to enable students to formally work, and make it easier for freelancers to file formal complaints about disproportionate healthcare taxes. In the last two years, Association Multi’s efforts have led to five amendments of four laws to support Bosnian businesses and their employees.

EPICENTER

EPICENTER pushed back against the Brussels bureaucracy and created a pan-European campaign—spanning 13 countries and their leading free market think tanks—to boost the EU single market’s economic competitiveness. The 18-month campaign, known as “From Red Tape to Reform,” reached more than 250 million Europeans through 2,100 mainstream media hits and 145 million social media impressions, in addition to 20 events and high-level meetings featuring the continent’s top policymakers. Along the way, EPICENTER helped shift public opinion drastically based on measurable consumer concerns, with economic growth and competitiveness now ranking as the third most important concern for Europeans (up from 11th in 2019)—behind only national security and migration. Liberal and center-right political parties have followed suit, adopting more pro-market platforms in 2024. For example, Romanian policymakers directly cited EPICENTER’s work as their inspiration to drop legislation that would have increased the installation cost of solar energy in private homes.

Georgia’s Future Academy

Georgia’s Future Academy has emerged as a crucial pro-democracy force through strategic youth mobilization. During the 2024 parliamentary elections, the organization mobilized, trained, and deployed over 2,000 election observers for the “My Vote” campaign to counter widespread electoral fraud in Georgia and address the country’s severe democratic backsliding. Georgia’s Future Academy also built several of the country’s largest civic education programs, including the #IDEBATE program and the Franklin Academy, totaling more than 5,000 alumni who now make up Georgia’s largest and most engaged pro-liberty youth network—both in-person and online. Georgia’s youth liberty movement is now an integral bulwark against increasing restrictions on civil society, such as the “Foreign Agents Law.” And young Georgians’ efforts have been amplified on social media, with the organization’s #MartisIdebi channel garnering over 10 million views in a matter of months.

“There is growing consensus that Europe’s economies need to regain their competitiveness, and Atlas Network’s independent partners are leading the way to make Europe more competitive,” said Atlas Network CEO Brad Lips. “By championing free-market reforms even in the face of adversity, idea entrepreneurs at local think tanks and ‘do tanks’—from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Belgium to the Republic of Georgia and beyond—make the case for individual liberty to everyday citizens and policymakers with the power to enact meaningful reforms. Their work to limit the long arm of government and unleash Europe’s entrepreneurial energy transcends partisan lines, and we are proud to celebrate such ardent champions of freedom at Europe Liberty Forum—this year and always.”