Fachkonferenz
Details
Ziel ist es, die positiven und negativen Erfahrungen des Transformationsproszesse von 1989ff an die jungen, demokratisch orientierten Kräfte nach den Umbrüchen in Tunesien und Ägypten weiterzugeben.
Die Konferenz ist initiiert vom Bulgarischen Außenministerium in Kooperation mit dem European Council on Foreign Relations.
Nähere Einzelheiten entnehmen Sie bitte dem Programm:
Central and Eastern Europe’s Transition and Change in the Middle East
Tentative conference agenda
Working Language: English
Translation will be provided in: Bulgarian, French and Arabic
Venue: Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan
5 MAY 2011
9:30 Registration
10:30 – 11:30 Opening remarks
Boyko Borissov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria
Keynote speakers
Nickolay Mladenov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria
Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe
Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, representative of the OSCE Chairmanship
11:30 – 13:00 Panel 1: The Political Transition
The panel will offer (re)assessment of the lessons learnt – best practices and mistakes made in Central and Eastern Europe’s transition. It will address an array of critical issues, such as negotiated transition and the role of round tables, transitional justice and dealing with the legacies of the old regimes, etc.
Keynote speaker:
Janos Martonyi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hungary
Moderator: Istvan Gyarmati, President, International Centre for Democratic Transition, Hungary
Panelists:
Zhelyu Zhelev, President of Bulgaria (1990-1997)
Alexander Smolar, President, Stefan Batory Foundation, Poland
Taoufik Ouanes, International lawyer, Tunisia
Mohamed Anwar El Sadat, Chairman of El Sadat Association for Social Development, Egypt
Ahmed Atef Dorra, film director and activist, Egypt
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch
14:30 – 16:00 Panel 2: Civil Society and Free Media
Functioning civil society and free media are essential for free societies. The panel will focus on two broad areas. Firstly, it will discuss the experience of different types of civil society organizations, including independent think tanks, human rights, etc., building networks and coalitions. Secondly, the panel will discuss the challenges of establishing and maintaining free media, legal and institutional guarantees, establishment of independent public media, strong investigative journalism and independent media content.
Moderator: Ivo Indzev, journalist, Bulgaria
Panelists:
Krzysztof Stanowski,Under-Secretary of State, MFA Poland
Alexander Andreev, editor, Deutsche Welle, Bulgaria
Pavol Demes, Director- GMF-Bratislava, Slovakia
Wasim Alqershi, Organization committee for Yemen Revolution, Yemen
Amani El-Khayat, ON TV, Egypt
Lamia Grar, Executive director of Arab Institute for Human Rights, Tunisia
16:00 – 16:30 Break
16:30 – 18:00 Panel 3: Anti-corruption Strategies
Corruption and lack of accountability and transparency have been among the main grievances that caused the revolutions in the Arab World. The panel will focus on developing anti-corruption strategies to address these deficits. The interplay of legal, institutional and civil society approaches will be discussed.
Moderator: Minna Järvenpää, International Advocacy Director, Open Society Foundations
Panelists:
Ognyan Minchev, Chairman of the Board, Transparency International, Bulgaria
Jana Hybášková, Head of EU Delegation to Iraq
Sasha Bezuhanova, Member of the Board, European Council of Women in Technologies
Abderrazak Kilani, President, Ordre national des avocats, Tunisia
Fouad Abdelmoumni, economist, Morocco
18:00 – 19:00 Presentation: Capacity Building for Democratic Institutions
The network of Schools of Political Studies of the Council of Europe aims to promote democratic pluralism, human rights and the rule of law. This initiative constitutes an important network of young politicians, civil society leaders, media professionals, business people, and thousands of alumni from the in the CEE region. The schools’ program focuses on all aspects and challenges of transition and the consolidation of democracy.
Moderator: Andrey Kovatchev, Member of the European Parliament, Bulgaria
Julian Popov, Chairman of the Board, School of Politics, Bulgaria
Sonja Licht, President of the Belgrade Fund of Political Excellence, Serbia
19:00 Dinner
Welcome: Daniel Korski, European Council on Foreign Relations;
Levon Hamparzumian, CEO of UniCredit-Bulbank
Address by: Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament - video address
6 MAY 2011
9:30 – 11:00Panel 4: Reforming Political Institutions
The panel will focus on a number of broad areas of developing political institutions: constitutional changes; political parties and free elections; political change and transformation and consolidation of state institutions, local authorities, and public services.
Moderator: Radoslaw Markowski, Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Political Studies
and Center for the Study of Democracy, Poland
Panelists:
Philip Dimitrov, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria (1991 -1992), Head of EU Delegation to Georgia
Dimitris Droutsas, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Greece;
Sven Alkalaj, Minister of Foreign Affairs, BiH
Abdel Monem Abouel Fetouh, Formal member of the leadership of Muslim Brotherhood and founder of a New Islamic Party “El Nahda, Egypt
Isam al Khafaji, special advisor and consultant on the social and economic affairs of the Middle East, the Netherlands
Sihem Ben Sendrine, Spokesperson - Conseil national pour les libertés en Tunisie, Tunisia
11:00 – 11:30 Break
11:30 – 12:15 Address by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 15:15 Panel 5: What Future Role for the EU in the MENA Region?
This panel will be recorded by the Bulgarian National Television. The panel aims to elicit the expectations of Arab activists and leaders for a new EU response and contribution. The discussion should focus on ideas for new EU policies in support of transformation in the Middle East and North Africa. Particular emphasis should be made on what role for countries from Central and Eastern Europe.
Moderator: Boyko Vassilev, Journalist, BNT, Bulgaria
Panelists:
Nickolay Mladenov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bulgaria
Luis Amado, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Portugal
Carl Bildt, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sweden
Hazem Al Ameen, Al Hayat newspaper, Lebanon
George Ishak, Activist and member of the leadership of Kefaya, Egypt
15:15 – 16:00 Break
16:00 – 17:30 Panel 6: The Way Ahead
Participants in this concluding plenary debate will be speakers only from the Middle East who should discuss the next steps forward and the relevance of Central and East European transition experience to their region.
Moderator: Nadim Shehadi, Associate Fellow - Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House
Panelists:
Theodore Karasik, Director, Research and Development, INEGMA, Dubai
Hassen Annabi, State Secretary, Ministry of Education, Tunisia
Aboubakr Jamaï, founder and editor, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, Morocco
Basem Kamel, Member of revolution youth coalition, Egypt
17:30 Closing remarks
Ivan Krastev, Center for Liberal Strategies, Member of the Board of ECFR, Bulgaria
18:30 Transfer to MFA
19:00 Buffet Dinner (at MFA)
7 MAY 2011
Departure of participants
