News source:

The International Center for Policy Studies (ICPS) and the KOLO Club will hold a roundtable discussion on May 23, 2013 about the future of Ukraine-EU relations.

The event, “The Ukraine-EU Association Agreement: Can there be European modernization without European integration?” will cover three major points:

• What price will Ukraine pay if the Association Agreement is not signed? What about the EU?
• How likely is Ukraine to meet the current requirements?
• How can the signing of the AA be ensured if Ukraine only partly fulfills the requirements regarding changes to electoral legislation, selective justice and economic reforms?

The discussion will feature expert analysis from Amanda Paul, a researcher at the European Policy Center in Brussels.

The event is being organized as part of ICPS’s public awareness campaign, “The Ukraine-EU Association Agreement: A locomotive for European-style reforms to modernize Ukraine.” It will be held from 18:00 to 21:00 at the KOLO Club’s Residence for Debate and Communication located at prov. Cheslava Belinskoho 5, Kyiv.

The event, which is organized in cooperation with the Representation of the European Commission and the Information Office of the European Parliament in the Czech Republic, will be held at the European House in Prague. The main speakers will be Natálie Vlková of the European Commission, Alena Falathová, Jakub Kulhánek and Štěpán Černý. 

You can find the invitation here. The seminar will be held in Czech.

The Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCSP) will hold a panel discussion on the protection of whistleblowers in the national security sector. It will be the opening discussion for the second day of the international conference “Protection of Whistleblowers.”

Speakers will include Saša Janković, ombudsman of the Republic of Serbia; Nebojša Rodić, Head of the Serbian Security Information Agency; and Benjamin Buckland of the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. The panel will be moderated by Professor Miroslav Hadžić, BCSP President of the Executive Board.

The two-day event is being organised by the office of the Serbian Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection as part of the project Protection of Whistleblowers, funded by the British Embassy in Belgrade and the government of the Netherlands.

A complete agenda draft can be found here.

Date of the event: 14.05.2013 from 13:30 to 16:00
Location: Raiņa bulvārī 4, Riga, Latvia

The Center for Public Policy PROVIDUS is hosting a discussion on diversity management, one of the most successful methods used in the corporate sector to promote conditions in which diversity can flourish.

Diversity management helps to put into practice the principle of equal access for different groups in society, at the same time respecting the differences between them. It is the ability to recognize that differences between people can be turned into organizational resources. In turn helps to promote diversity in an organization and the confidence to overcome barriers to communication.

The event, “Lessons public administration can learn from the business environment,” will focus on how to apply the principles of diversity management to the public sector.

The discussion will be moderated by PROVIDUS researcher Iveta Kažoka. It is part of the project “Cross-cultural and diversity management training system for public sector employees.” The project is implemented by the European Fund for the Integration Fund.

The event agenda can be found at the PROVIDUS website.

PROVIDUS requests that you register to attend this event. To register, email info@providus.lv.

Europe Without Barriers and PASOS are pleased to invite you to a public discussion and photo exhibit on May 16, 2013, in Prague on the subject of “EU Visa Policy in Eastern Europe and What Neighbors Can Do: The case of the Czech Republic.”

The discussion will be led by a panel of experts and accompanied by a photo exhibition: “Visas? What’s the reason?,” focused on the cases of high-profile Ukrainian journalists, civic activists, intellectuals, academics and athletes who faced serious difficulties in obtaining visas for traveling to the EU.

Venue: Černá Labuť, Na Poříčí 25, 8th Floor, Prague 1

Date: May 16, 2013; 2:30pm to 4:30pm

The issues to be discussed include:
Schengen visa policy: what works, what doesn’t
Benefits and costs of the “border revolution”
The case of the Czech Republic as a Schengen state: Visa issuance in Eastern Europe and the world
What can be delivered to make a visa-free Europe a reality?

Panelists:
Oleksandr Sushko, Europe Without Barriers, Ukraine
Iryna Sushko, Europe Without Barriers, Ukraine
Piotr Kazmierkiewicz, Institute of Public Affairs, Poland
Andrea Vilímová, Czech Interior Ministry, Czech Republic

Moderator: Jeff Lovitt, PASOS

Coffee, tea, water, juice and a light snack will be served. Please register via email: ukrainevisas@pasos.org

This event is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation, European Programme.

Download: Visa Agenda