On the 14-16 of May, in Athens, The European Students’ Forum AEGEE has successfully organized a remarkable event entitled “Future of Europe”. The event was organised in partnership with JEF (Young European Federalists), hosted 30 participants from all over Europe and took place within the framework of the “EU and Europe”, the year plan project of AEGEE-Europe for the year 2004, carried out by the International Politics Working Group (IPWG) of AEGEE.
This umbrella project aims at analysing and discussing the
relationships between the EU after its latest enlargement and its (new)
neighbours. Accordingly, the conference participants were provided with a great
opportunity to elaborate on the matters bearing pivotal importance for the
Future of Europe, including enlargement, new borders of Europe, Constitution for
the European Union. The conference was opened on the 14th of May with the
speeches by Aggeliki Boura from AEGEE-Athina, Maria Tsiaga from JEF-Athens,
Risana Shytou from AEGEE-Europe and Olivier Genkin from AEGEE-IPWG, followed by
a fruitful panel discussion on the EU enlargement and the speech on the role of
the European Commission in the new EU by Mr. Georgios
Markopouliotis - the Head of the European
Commission Office in Athens. While Giovanni
Biava, International Officer JEF Italy,
enlightened participants and raised discussions on a Federal Constitution for
Europe, Romanian Ambassador Caius Traian
Dragomir, the First Secretary of the Polish
Embassy - Krzysztof
Lewandowski, Bulgarian Ambassador
Stefan Stoyanov and Cyprus Ambassador - Leonidas
Pantelides provided a great opportunity for
the participants to listen to their first-hand opinions regarding the impact of
the Union’s enlargement.
As regards
border matters, Oleh Kyriyenko,
consultant on EU projects, and
Yiđit Aksakođlu from Istanbul Bilgi University NGO Training and Research Center,
explained the current situation in Ukraine and Turkey as the new neighbours of
the EU. The conference participants also enjoyed and actively participated in
the thematic workshops on enlargement, EU institutional framework and citizen’s
rights. The conference was followed by a cultural activity Balkan-SEE-nemania, during
which young European students had a chance to see, analyse and discuss Serbian,
Greek, Turkish, Cypriot and Macedonian movies and
documentaries.
" I strongly believe that
this conference was a great opportunity to gain better understanding of the
current situation in the countries neighbouring the European Union. I had the
chance to learn a lot from the enthusiastic and fruitful arguments of
participants and the presentations of high-level speakers" – reflects Burcu
Becermen, one of the participants.
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
European Students' Forum -
AEGEE
Rue Nestor de Tiere 15
1030 Bruxelles
Phone: +32 2
245 23 00
Fax: +32 2 245 62 60
Web: www.aegee.org
Email:
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