Freedom Week 2015 Overview in East and Southeast Europe
The Regional Office of East and Southeast Europe (“FNF ESEE”) joined the global FNF initiative Freedom Week 2015 with more than 20 initiatives in 8 cities, organized by 7 offices of the Foundation, all promoting FNF contributions to Freedom. The celebrations included a wide range of events from a 25th anniversary international conference, through a publication and video infographics, to two photo exhibitions and several panel discussions and workshops. The topics covered a wide variety from the role of liberalism in the EU integration and the challenge of brain drain in the region, through entrepreneurship in Romania and Croatia, “World Economic Freedom” report and media freedom in Georgia, free trade in Ukraine, transition to democracy and market economy in Bulgaria, violations of human and civil rights in Russia, civic education activities across the Balkans and South Caucasus.
The Freedom week contributions are presented below in the following order: FNF ESEE, FNF Southeast Europe, FNF South Caucasus, FNF Ukraine and Belarus, FNF Russia and Central Asia and FNF Western Balkans. For more photos and updates from the #FreedomWeek2015 in the region please visit the event page in Facebook.
The Regional Office of East and Southeast Europe
The Regional Office of East and Southeast Europe participated during Freedom Week with two initiatives.
“Brain Drain – The Future of Education in Europe”, Panel Discussion and Infographics at the 19th Forum 2000 Conference Prague, Czech Republic; Regional office FNF East and Southeast Europe (13th -15th September)
Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (“FNF”) has been supporting and participating in the “Forum 2000” conference in Prague, Czech Republic for almost a decade now. The focus of the 19th edition of the Forum 2000 conference was on “Democracy and Education”. This year from 13th -15th September during Freedom Week two FNF offices have participated in the conference, namely, the Regional Office for East and Southeast Europe and the Prague Office of FNF, part of the Regional Office of FNF Europe. Overall, at the conference there were three FNF events, one working breakfast on the “Challenges of Brain Drain”, supported by FNF ESEE, and two panel discussions, supported by FNF Prague Office on “Democratic Education: Freedom to Think, Freedom to Learn" and "Reform or Perish". The FNF panels addressed three of the five thematic areas of this edition of the conference, dealing with different aspects of democracy and education, namely: Education Towards Prosperity; Education, Citizenship and Values; Changing Role of Education.
A special video infographics, part of the series “FreedomGraph” of FNF ESEE, was screened at the beginning the panel discussion on the topic of “Skilled Migration and Brain Drain”, setting the ground for fruitful discussions. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr Rainer Adam, Regional Director of FNF ESEE and had four distinguished panellists: Sandra Švaljek, Krassen Stanchev, Bogdan Patru and Surendra Munshi.
More information here.
FNF Southeast Europe
FNF Southeast Europe participated in Freedom Week with four initiatives: an international conference and a special publication for its 25th anniversary in Bulgaria; LIEBSEN leaders’ meeting in Sofia and a conference “Boosting the Romanian Economy by Fostering SME's” in Bucharest.
“25 Years Promoting Freedom in Bulgaria” International Conference and Publication, Sofia, Bulgaria; FNF Southeast Europe (17th September 2015)
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, on 17th September 2015, the FNF’s Project Office for Southeast Europe hosted an international conference “25 Years Promoting Freedom in Bulgaria”. In the largest liberal convention in the country, dignitaries from Bulgaria and Europe discussed the years of transition towards democracy and market economy, and the role of liberals in this process.
Prof. Karl-Heinz Paqué, Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Foundation, opened the event then yielded the floor for welcoming remarks by Vesna Pusić, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia and Meglena Kuneva, Deputy Prime Minister for European Policies Coordination and Institutional Affairs of Bulgaria. Before the two discussion panels, Rumiana Kolarova, Secretary to the President of Bulgaria, congratulated the Foundation on behalf of President Rosen Plevneliev. Dr Juli Minoves, President of Liberal International delivered the closing speech.
More event information here.
Besides the conference, FNF SEE prepared a special photo exhibition and a publication, which presents in retrospect the 25-year history of the Foundation and its contribution to freedom in Bulgaria. The booklet contains a chronological review of every year since 1990, each with its key historic events and highlights from FNF’s work. You can download the publication, currently available only in Bulgarian for now, from here. Expect a translation soon.
More event information here.
LIBSEEN Leaders Meeting, Sofia, Bulgaria; FNF Southeast Europe (18th -19th September 2015)
Bulgaria`s capital Sofia yet again became the centre of liberal thought on 18th and 19th of September 2015. Liberal dignitaries from all of Southeast Europe came together for the annual leaders` meeting of the Liberal South East European Network (LIBSEEN) “Liberalism – a new qualitative factor for the European integration.” The event was hosted by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, with the support of the Project Office for Southeast Europe of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) and the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Held against the backdrop of the biggest refugee influx in Europe, the two day event also brought together Sir Graham Watson, President of ALDE Party, Dr Juli Minoves, President of Liberal International, Hans van Baalen, MEP and Vice President of ALDE Party, and Prof Karl- Heinz Paqué, Vice President of the Board of Directors of FNF, who addressed the most pressing challenges for the European Union and for the future of the European integration.
More event information here.
“Boosting the Romanian Economy by Fostering SME's” Conference, Bucharest, Romania; FNF Southeast Europe (22nd September 2015)
The conference “How to boost the Romanian economy by fostering SMEs and sustaining the road of entrepreneurship in Romania” gathered more than 60 entrepreneurs and guests from media and civil society. It was hosted by the FNF in collaboration with the Centre for Institutional Analysis and Development Eleutheria (CADI). It was a difficult debate because on the one hand, the representatives of the entrepreneurs demanded a solution of “easy credits” offered by banks to start-ups and small firms, while on the other hand, the Vice Governor of the Romanian National Bank said that SME’s are, since the economic crisis, not good credit risks for banks. In the end, both sides agreed on a solution offered by the Vice Governor to the audience. Daniel Kaddik, Project Director of FNF Southeast Europe participated as a panellist in the event.
More event information here.
FNF South Caucasus
FNF South Caucasus participated in Freedom Week 2015 with eight activities.
The presentation of “World Economic Freedom Report 2015” (21st Sept) gathered more than 50 individuals from various civic and media organizations. Paata Sheshelidze and Gia Jandieri from New Economic School Georgia (NESG), with Dr Stefan Melnik, a German-British expert, talked about the importance of private property, free market economy and Georgia’s current position in the report ranking. The event was widely covered by Georgian mass media.
Furthermore, Freedom Week civic education activities in Georgia included also the seminar "Man, Liberalism and State" at University of Georgia, the workshops "Liberalism-Values, Principles and Policies" and “Basics of Facilitation”, all of which were moderated by Dr Stefan Melnik. A roundtable discussion “Why Liberty" (18th Sept.) involved meetings with partner civic organizations to discuss legal developments concerning the status of state property.
The following media related events took place during Freedom Week 2015 in Georgia: “Tell the Truth” Citizen Journalist Workshop sessions (14th -17th Sept.); a roundtable discussion “Freedom First” with the German expert, Dr. Jürgen Wickert; and “Freedom Frame” photo exhibition in partnership with the Centre for Civil Involvement (CCI) (25th Sept.).
More event information here.
FNF Ukraine and Belarus
“Free Trade with Ukraine: Facts, Traps and the Consequences” Discussion, Berlin, Germany; FNF Ukraine and Belarus (16th September)
FNF Ukraine and Belarus participated in Freedom Week 2015 with a discussion on the economic and political consequences of a Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, moderated by FNF’s Project Director, Miriam Kosmehl. FNF together with the German Society for Eastern European Studies “dgo” invited the public to Berlin to discuss the “Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area” (DCFTA) that will come into force as of the 1 January 2016 as an integral part of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.
More event information here.
FNF Russia and Central Asia
FNF Russia and Central Asia organized two events in celebration of the Freedom Week Initiative.
Naumann Lecture with Gerhart Baum in St.Petersburg, Russia;
FNF Russia and Central Asia (15th September)
Gerhart Baum, the former Minister of the Interior of Germany and a FDP politician, delivered the “Naumann Lecture” talk on the topic “Violence in the Modern World: a Test of Strength of Human and Civil Rights” in St.-Petersburg at a venue with the symbolic name of “Freedom Palace”. This event resumed the anuual programme “Naumann Lectures”, where notable German liberal activists share their opinion on the complex and ambiguous processes and events in Russia. Baum’s lecture raised the issues to what extent a threat to the national security is serious and if the government really needs to interfere with the human rights and freedoms. A panel discussion about the interaction between the legal system and the citizens followed up with the Russian experts: Ella Paneyakh (Higher School of Economics), Elena Panfilova (Transparency International), Victor Voronkov (The Centre for Independent Social Research) and Alexander Vereshchagin (The Institute of Precedent). The discussion was moderated by Nikolay Rybakov and Julius Freytag-Loringhoven.
More information here in Russian for the discussion.
“Visualization of Choice” Exhibition and Discussion, Moscow, Russia; FNF Russia and Central Asia (15th September)
FNF Moscow office organized during Freedom Week an event on the topic of “Visualization of Choice: Electoral Freedom in Contemporary Russia". It included an exhibition of the FDP election posters, created since 1945. The participants can vote for their favorite visualization of historical posters from the modern voter perspective. Moreover, a presentation made by Dmitry Moskvin from the Centre of Contemporary Art was delivered of the project “Pre-election Campaigning as a Science and Art”, which FNF supported in Perm. A third part of the event was a discussion about the single day for voting in Russia with the experts Vitaly Averin from the Movement for Protecting Voter Rights “Golos” and Sergey Vershinin, an independent observer.
FNF Western Balkans
FNF Western Balkans celebrated Freedom Week 2015 with the following three events.
Recorded web session on “Just How “Neo-liberal” Bosnia Truly is?” took place as part of Freedom Week in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on 22nd September. Furthermore, a conference on “Privatization – Economic Necessity or Destruction of Domestic Economy” in Sarajevo (24th September) joined the Freedom Week calendar.
“SMART CITIES Regional Summer Academy”, Pula, Croatia; FNF Western Balkans (18th -20th September)
The “SMART CITIES” Regional Summer Academy brought together young liberals from Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia to dive into the issue of supporting young entrepreneurs and start-ups. They had the unique chance to meet entrepreneurs from the region and from the US, and learn what innovative businesses nowadays really need and expect from liberal politics.
More information here: