Date: (14.07.2003)

PRESS RELEASE: Students discuss the future of Russia-EU relations in the light of the enlarged EU neighbourhood policy

Moscow and St. Petersburg Conference - EU and Russia - International AEGEE Conference successfully took place!

From the 2nd until 11th of July 2004, in the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, AEGEE's International Politics Working Group successfully organised a large-scale international conference devoted to Russia-European Union relations in the field of culture and politics after the latest EU enlargement.  After a profound analysis of the cultural and political relationships between EU and Russia and their future development, as well as problems and perspectives of collaboration in the light of EU enlargement, the discussions in the circles of Russian and European students, scientists, diplomats and experts in the field of international relations brought a concrete outcome of several proposals to improve the mutual relations between the two regions.

For over one week, 25 students from all over Europe tackled numerous subjects concerning Russian Identity vs. European Identity, the future of Russia-EU relations, opportunities and problems of Eastern Enlargement of EU and the European Union neighbourhood policy in relation to Russia. 

At least 2 concrete ideas for action have been identified during the workshop discussions: One is to create a commission with history experts from the 3 Baltic states and Russia in order to harmonize history lessons at schools and universities. Following a similar experience between France and Germany such a process should increase objectivity and transparency of history teaching and thus reduce stereotypes, which are in many cases passed over at schools. Discussions about the ethnic minorities in Russia and their image in other parts of Russia led to a second idea for action: The mass media in Russia, especially TV, could present the daily news in such a way that after the general news regarding the happenings in Russia and the world, a substantial and integrative part of the news is dedicated to the different regions of the Russian Federation. This should aim at increasing the relatively objective knowledge the people have about the other regions and ethnic groups in Russia and thus promote tolerance, integration and stability inside the country. Both, Russia and the European Union share a significant interest in this regard. Martin Schiffauer, participant from Germany, noticed: "In newspapers we need more articles of foreign people. This provides greater access to the opinion of the others."

Discussions were led and facilitated by a great number of prominent speakers like Clelia Rontoyanni from Political Section at the Delegation of the European Commission to Russia, Irina Karapetianc - Acting Rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Vincent Piket - Head of the Delegation of the European Commission in Russia, Andreas von Mettenheim - Plenipotentiary Minister of Germany, Tiddo Hofstee - Ambassador of the Netherlands in Russian Federation, Chris Baxter - Acting Director of the British Council in Russia, Pavel Palazchenko - political expert from the  Gorbachev Foundation and professors from the Russian Academy of Science, Saint-Petersburg and Moscow State Universities, Gdansk University of Business and Management in Poland, as well as Dutch, Spanish and German Embassy officials to the Russian Federation and the British Embassy representatives. In St Petersburg there were numerous Russian students and PHD students attending the conference. They also prepared presentations about the Russian foreign policy in the past centuries. Methodological balance was provided by simulations, e.g. about a Russia-EU summit about energy and environment where the participants represented the key roles and experienced how to lead such negotiations in a professional way.


The participants' understanding of European and Russian Identities and developing deeper knowledge and understanding of attitudes in the EU towards Russia and vice-versa were the leading goals of the conference, and were happily achieved. Moreover, the differences, similarities and opportunities between Russia and the EU, as well as topics around the European integration in general, further EU enlargement and international co-operation have been discussed intensively.

As a result of the conference a closer collaboration between AEGEE locals in Russia was reinforced, especially a closer collaboration between the two biggest locals in Russia - Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Olivier Genkin, EU and Europe project manager, concludes: "We realised that Russians and Europeans not only have different pieces of information, but that very different perceptions of the same facts are existing, mainly biased information and prejudices. The conference was already valuable for the participants and thus successful while starting to discuss such issues."

A great deal of aims stands behind the EU and Europe project. The project is composed of a series of conferences in different European countries, and aims at the analysis of the relations between the enlarged EU and its new neighbours, after its biggest enlargement. The Opening Conference Europe's (Torn?) Identity (Ljubljana, Slovenia), The Future of Europe (Athina, Greece), Mediating Europe, BY, Between and Beyond - Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine & EU (Minsk, Belarus), Russia & EU: political and cultural cooperation (Moskva and Sankt Petersburg, Russia) have already taken place. The ones still to come this year are Bulgaria, Romania & EU (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Turkey & EU ( Izmir, Turkey), Western Balkans & EU (Banja Luka and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and EFTA & EU (Oslo, Norway). 

AEGEE is one of Europe's largest interdisciplinary and voluntary student associations, operating without being linked to any political party, promoting a unified Europe, cross-border co-operation, communication and integration in academic environment, and at the same time striving to create an open and tolerant society by involving students and young graduates in valuable projects and discussions over the topics of importance for the communities they live in. It is represented in 260 university cities, in 42 countries all around Europe and has about 17000 members.


More information:
Ewa Solarczyk
Vice-President / Director for Public Relations, AEGEE-Europe
Email: [log in to unmask] 

European Students' Forum - AEGEE
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