Visions and Perspectives for the Black Sea Region
Second Black Sea Young Reformers Fellowship Conference in 2011, 6-8 October 2011, Brussels, Belgium
18.10.2011
Downloads: Agenda , List of Participants
This year’s second Black Sea Young Reformers Fellowship conference turned out to be something special. The BSYR Fellowship team did not only organise plenty of meetings with different EU officials for our BSYR Fellows 2011 to make their voices be heard in the heart of the European Union; This year’s conference also brought our BSYR Alumni 2010 to Brussels, where they established the new BSYR Fellowship Alumni Association and therefore made a step toward the long-term effect of the BSYR Fellowship.
Our BSYR fellows being in the centre of attention drove our Brussels event. In the inspiring atmosphere of the European Quarter, the fellows had the chance to meet with several EU officials and diplomats representing different areas of the European Union’s institutional network. The starting shot made Michael Däumer, Policy Analyst at the European External Action Service (EEAS). He pointed out the pillars of the newly founded EEAS and gave an internal overview of the future prospects and goals of the EEAS. In addition to the meeting with Mr Däumer, our fellows were able to attend lectures by Michael Leigh, former Director-General for Enlargement at the European Commission and now German Marshall Fund (GMF) Fellow and Senior Advisor, Antonio Missiroli, Member of the BEPA Outreach Team at the European Commission, Hannes Swoboda, Member of the European Parliament, Daniela Gritti and Anita Vella from the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries at the European Comission, Riina Ruth Kionka, Head of Human Rights Policy Guidelines Division at EEAS, Reinhold Brender, Deputy Head of Division, Eastern Partnership, Bilateral relations with Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and South Caucasus and Markus Warasin from the Policy Team of the Directorate General for Communication at the European Parliament.
The following two days were dedicated to the BSYR fellows’ presentations. Since the last conference in Batumi, Georgia, our Black Sea Young Reformers have been developing papers and projects that were presented at the Brussels event. After the cordial welcome words of Ian Lesser, Executive Director of the GMFUS Office in Brussels, and Joachim Rogall, Senior Vice President, International Relations Central and South-eastern Europe, CIS, China, at the Robert Bosch Stiftung, a highly inspiring debate about crucial issues such as visa-free travel in the EU for Moldova and Georgia, the EU-Russia relations, and the fundamental question if the Black Sea Region is a place for the EU at all, was initiated. Experts like journalist and Europe Correspondent Frank Hofmann, General secretary and founding member of the European Stability Initiative (ESI) in Brussels, Alexandra Stiglmayer, Project Coordinator of the Open Europe Programme “Friendly EU Border” at the Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw, Joanna Fomina, Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Brussels, Olga Shumylo-Tapiola and Nicolas Whyte, Director of the International Diplomat’s Brussels Office, joined the invitation to debate together with the BSYR fellows key questions regarding the future of the Black Sea Region.
The intellectually stimulating lectures and discussions from the second conference day were completed by BSYR fellows’ project idea presentations on the last day. Our BSYR fellows proved to be extremely creative and managed to develop fresh ideas on how to bring together people in the Black Sea Region and start a dialogue that could make an impact. The Robert Bosch Stiftung and the German Marshall Fund of the US are glad to give the most promising projects the chance of being realized. Stay curious about it, we will keep you updated!
We would like to thank the team of the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund of the US (GMFUS) for hosting us in Brussels and making the conference a real treat.
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