Today is already tomorrow

Since 1989, Central and Eastern Europe has become a place where big ideas are made possible. In the last 25 years, many countries have come a long way from political and economic oblivion to democracy and prosperity, a transformation led by outstanding people who have achieved the seemingly impossible. Now we look to the next 25 years.

In October 2014, Res Publica together with Google and the Visegrad Fund in cooperation with the Financial Times, will launch the New Europe 100 project – a list of outstanding challengers from Central and Eastern Europe who are changing the world and improving people’s lives with ideas that scale up in the digital world. In the first of three articles, editor-in-chief of Visegrad Insight, Wojciech Przybylski, argues that the world of tomorrow is at our fingertips today.

Central Europe is facing an opportunity afforded by the next, totally new wave of modernisation that entails mass use of the Internet and innovations. For years, it has endeavoured to catch up to the West following external guidelines. Today, there are no off-the-shelf recipes, as all countries shape their own futures on their own. This is an opportunity for Central Europe to transcend its own history, provided that the new tech revolution overcomes the digital divide and everyone is included.