A symposium of the international program "Europe's Futures" of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) took place in Cres (Croatia) from 22 to 23 June 2021, with the participation of IVO president Grigorij Mesežnikov, a program‘s fellow in 2019-2020. The event was organized by IWM in cooperation with the Center for Advanced Studies - South East Europe, University of Rijeka (CAS UNIRI) and the ERSTE Foundation. In their contributions, the symposium participants addressed issues of democracy and the future of Europe in the context of current challenges (pandemic, EU enlargement, authoritarian revisionism). In addition to participating in the discussions within the individual thematic panels, the IVO president moderated a panel on the state of the media in Central and Eastern Europe with the participation of two world leading journalists – Alison Smale (New York Times) and Tim Judah (The Economist).