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:
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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