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Southeastern Europe Political Party Forum: Participation of Dr Rainer Adam

National Democratic Institute - NDI's Forum in Belgrade
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2.1 Minutes
Southeastern Europe Political Party Forum Participants

Southeastern Europe Political Party Forum Participants

The Regional Director of FNF East and Southeast Europe, Dr Rainer Adam, participated in the "Southeastern Europe Political Party Forum", organized by the National Democratic Institute - NDI in Belgrade‬ from 12-14 February. The Forum brought together participants from political parties and political foundations across the political spectrum in the region to discuss the current political trends in Europe, and its repercussions on political parties in Southeast Europe as far as responsiveness, representation, discourse and integrity are concerned.

Three representatives from the liberal spectrum in the region participated in the Forum: Boris Blazekovic, International Secretary, Croatian People’s Party (HNS); Dusan Gamser, International Officer of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Serbia; and Tudor-Tim Ionescu, International Officer of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats of Romania (ALDE). Moreover, the Dutch Democrats 66 (D-66) through their Board Member, Isidoor Van den Berk, shared the experience on party integrity from West Europe in the conference.

As a panelist at the opening discussion on "Mainstream Politics in Europe: Regressing or Resilient?”, Dr Adam spoke about the European dimension of national reforms and reform policies of mainstream political parties. He concluded that "given the many current crises in the European Union - the looming Brexit, the currency crisis and the asylum seekers/migration crisis - Balkan countries should take the initiative and reform unilaterally instead of waiting for the EU to solve their problems. Thereby they could demonstrate to the EU that they would be responsible new member states and increase trust and goodwill".

The other panelists, alongside Dr Adam, were the liberal party representative from Croatia - Boris Blazekovic (HNS) and Aleksandra Djurovic, MP (SNS, Serbia). 

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom is glad to have contributed to the Forum’s enriching and open debate, experience sharing and search for solutions to the burning strategic issues of the political landscape in Southeast Europe, alongside with other key stakeholders.

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