02.06.2004 - AEGEE Press
release on seminar of EU and Europe project in Minsk
"Mediating Europe:
By, Between and Beyond" in Minsk
This Thursday, 25 students from all over
Europe are gathering in Minsk, Belarus, for an AEGEE conference entitled
“Mediating Europe: BY, Between and Beyond”. The three-day event will focus on
the relationships between Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and the European
Union.
The event will be the third
conference organized in the larger framework of AEGEE’s large-scale project “EU
& Europe”, dealing with the relations between the EU and its neighbours
after the enlargement of the 1st of May 2004. Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova form
a group of these neighbouring countries and, consequently, “Mediating Europe”
will focus on the relations between these states and the EU in its new
composition.
The overall idea of the
conference is to reflect upon the issue of new borders and its potential
division into EU “insiders” and “outsiders” in the perspective of the mediative
function that can be carried out by Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova in this regard.
Such an approach develops further the concept of European Neighbourhood towards
cooperation, more adequate representation of this region within the EU and its
cross-border specificity (the “between” dimension), in particular its position
of border space between the EU and Russia, as well as enlargement of the Eastern
horizons of the European identity (the “beyond” dimension).
Prestigious speakers such as Andrzej Czuchryta, 2nd secretary
of the Embassy of Poland, prof. Vladimir Dunaev first vice-rector of European
Humanities University and Aleksander Mikheishin from the International Relations
Affairs of European Humanities University are expected to speak to the
audience.
As a pre-activity to the
conference, the participants who are coming from various universities from Minsk
and other cities of Belarus as well as from other European countries had been
asked to prepare papers that they will present in Minsk as a basis for the
discussions, workshops and simulations. This will help to understand the
perceptions the people have regarding each other and to open space for fruitful
brainstorming and action planning in this field. Among the main topics addressed
will be history and culture, mobility and identity, economics and politics, with
a particular focus on the New Neighbourhood Policy of the European Union.
“It is worth noting that AEGEE is
discussing these issues in Minsk in spite of the fact that Belarus has been
officially removed from the list of European Neighbourhood policy countries
which proves a rather developed European dimension of civil society in
Belarus”, states Dzmitri Korenko, head of the
organising team of AEGEE-Minsk.
The
conference is organized by AEGEE-Minsk and International Politics Working Group
of the European Students’ Forum AEGEE-Europe and also enjoys the support of the
European Humanities University in Minsk as well as the Department for
International Relations of the Belarusian State
University.
International Politics
Working Group (IPWG) is an association of
AEGEE members all over Europe interested in international relations and
politics. Since its foundation in 1997, IPWG has become an important pillar of
AEGEE activities by organizing a wide variety of conferences, seminars and
workshops on political topics. IPWG also provides speakers and workshop leaders
for events with political themes, and advices AEGEE Europe on political
issues.
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
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