Democracy, Partnership, Enlargement – Challenges for Europe, Challenges for the Polish EU Presidency
Perspectives for EU policy-makers and democratic reformers
in the Eastern Partners, the Balkans, and North Africa
A PASOS/IPA international think-tanks and policymakers conference
Friday 25 November 2011
Venue: Centrum Zielna, ul. Zielna 37, 00-108 Warsaw, Poland
Keynote speaker:
Krzysztof Stanowski
Undersecretary of State for Development and Economic Cooperation,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poland
Other confirmed speakers:
Conference Programme
Welcome: Jacek Kucharczyk, President of the Executive Board, Institute of Public Affairs, Poland
Morning Plenary: Eastern Partnership and Enlargement during the Hungarian and Polish Presidencies
Panel 1: Visa liberalisation in the Western Balkans and Eastern Partner countries –similarities and lessons to be learnt
Panel 2: New Media: Catalyst for Democracy or a Tool of Dictators?
Closing Plenary: European Neighbourhood Policy and Democratisation: Southern and Eastern dimension
Download complete schedule of conference events here.
Support for the conference is provided by the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) of Open Society Foundations, the Think Tank Fund of the Open Society Foundations, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Warsaw, the US National Endowment for Democracy, Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. and the European Union: Support for organisations active at European level in the field of active European citizenship.
The policy briefs presented at the conference have been co-ordinated by PASOS, and prepared by the Institute of Public Affairs, Poland, the Research Centre of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, and the Center for Policy Studies at Central European University, Hungary. The policy briefs are made possible with the financial support of the International Visegrad Fund.
Following is a description of each brief and a link to download the paper:
What kind of EU does the Mediterranean need? (Alexander Duleba & Lucia Najšlová)
This paper proposes modalities for stronger and more efficient EU engagement in the reform of Arab countries that recently underwent revolutions, without necessarily putting extra burden on financial expenditure allocated for the region. It argues that the EU policy in the Mediterranean has to be grounded in structured partnership with non-state actors, which engages them in all phases of policy cycle including planning of goals and monitoring of results of EUMED cooperation. This policy study was carried out with the support of the International Visegrad Fund.
From the network to the streets: Online tools and democratization in Egypt and Belarus (Alek Tarkowski, Basem Fathy and Dzianis Melyantsou)
This policy brief includes two case studies – Egypt and Belarus – that show how digital communication technologies were used in recent protest activities in both countries. Based on interviews with civil society activists and an analysis of the process, it provides recommendations to EU policymakers and
argues for stronger EU endorsement of civic freedoms, including an uncensored internet.
Friendly Neighbours: Increasing the Potential of European Neighbourhood Policy Cross-Border Cooperation Initiatives (Andrey Demidov & Sara Svensson)
This policy brief looks at the EU’s promotion of integration and cooperation along its external borders and draws policy recommendations from the experience on the ground. The policy brief focuses on the local level, on people and communities living close to the borders as represented by political administrations (local governments) and civil society organizations. The brief starts with an analysis of the current practice of the crossborder cooperation initiatives of the ENP and the partnership with Russia.
PASOS, launched in 2005, is a growing network that now comprises 50 independent think-tanks spanning more than 27 countries in Europe and Central Asia, and the conference audience will include a strong group of policy analysts with expertise from the PASOS region. The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) in Warsaw is a founding member of PASOS. This year, IPA has teamed up with leading Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza to produce Prezydencja2011.pl, an online portal dedicated to the 2011 Polish EU presidency.
.
For more information:
Media inquiries:
