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Only until 15 May 2015, applications for the Forum for Young Professionals "Europe Lab" have been accepted.
The EU-Russia Civil Society Forum invites young professionals aged between 25 and 35 from the EU, Russia, and other European states to apply for the Forum.
Forum for Young Professionals "Europe Lab" is a unique communication and exchange platform for change makers from all over Europe working in public administration, business, NGOs, universities, think tanks, and other fields of professional engagement.
Main goals of “Europe Lab” are to enable cross-sector co-operation and promote exchange of ideas, develop partner networks, and encourage common projects of young professionals in Europe in several areas.
The working language of the Forum is English.
“Europe Lab” will take place on 23–26 July 2015 in Lithuania – in Vilnius and at the Raseiniai Local History Museum, a unique place for preservation of historical memory and a former jail for political prisoners in the times of the first Lithuanian independence (1918-1940) as well as under Communist and Nazi regimes.
The programme of “Europe Lab” 2015 includes five workshops:
• Historical Memory and Culture of Remembrance – Dealing with Conflicts of Perception
• Trans-Border Traffic, Visa, and Migration – European Borders in a Globalised World
• Re-Thinking the Urban Space – New Outfit for Distressed Areas
• Corruption – Common Burden or Stimulus to Progress?
Every workshop will be curated by a coordinator.
The best common projects, whose ideas were elaborated during the workshops, will be granted. The winners will receive advice from prominent experts in their area as well as coordinators and moderators. The results will be presented at the General Assembly of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum on 7-9 December 2015.
Finally, “Europe Lab” graduates are invited to start permanent young professionals’ platform at the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, to lead and play a role in a number of future initiatives.
Costs for workshops, accommodation, and meals are covered by organisers. Travel costs are borne by participants themselves.
Please submit your application before 15 May 2015 here.
Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us via e-mail.
See you in Lithuania!
Forum for Young Professionals “Europe Lab” is organised by the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum and supported by the European Commission and the Stefan Batory Foundation.
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TOP NEWS
Berlin - The Next Destination for the Civil Society Actors from the EU and Russia
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On 15-17 June 2015, the focus of the Forum activities will be set on Berlin. Members of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum from both the EU and Russia working in different fields of activities will join experts for the Conference "Legal Aspects of Civilian Oversight".
The aim of this project is to create a format for direct exchange of successful practices and ideas on the use of existing legal mechanisms, and for development of new legal approaches around civilian oversight between civil society actors from Russia and the EU.
The kick-off meeting of the project team, which was also held in Berlin on 28-30 April 2015, was inter alia attended by Peter Franck (Amnesty International Germany, Berlin), Natalia Golosnova (Women's Lawyer, Yekaterinburg), Maria Kanevskaya (Human Rights Resource Centre, St. Petersburg), Ksenia Mikhailova (Bellona, St. Petersburg), Viktoria Mlynarčíková (Pontis Foundation, Bratislava), Denis Primakov (Transparency International Russia, Moscow), Irina Protasova (Man and Law, Republic of Mari El), Olga Salomatova (Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Warsaw), Denis Samoilov (Organisation for Development of Productive Initiatives, Perm), and others.
In the course of the meeting, such topics were discussed as legal status of non-governmental organisations, access to fair trial, civilian oversight concerning the access to closed institutions and on the municipal level, international law aspects in fight against corruption, assurance of migrants' rights and freedom of movement, administrative responsibility for environmental crimes, legal aspects of social entrepreneurship, initiatives for judiciary reforms, and many others.
The first results of the discussions will be presented at the conference in June followed up by in-depth analyses of situation in the EU and Russia with participation of external experts on the mentioned topics. The conference will take place simultaneously with the Forum's EC Final Project Meeting 2014-2015.
The result of the expert rounds will be a bilingual (English/Russian) publication on legal aspects of civilian oversight to be presented at the General Assembly of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum on 7-9 December 2015.
The project is funded by the European Commission and the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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WORKING GROUPS
Support the Exhibition "DIFFERENT WARS. National School Textbooks on WWII"
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We kindly invite you to support the Exhibition "DIFFERENT WARS. National Textbooks on WWII" by the Working Group "Historical Memory and Education".
The first images of the past, which are formed by the school education and history textbooks, are among the strongest ones. The historical narratives we grow up with have an enormous influence on our identity and perception of other countries and nations.
Exhibition "Different Wars" will reveal the differences in the perception and narration of the WWII history in modern high school textbooks in the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia.
The exposition with text and visual materials, photo documentation, textbooks from different countries will give the viewer a vivid idea of the national memories. The exhibition will review, contrast, and compare various historical narratives presented in the high school textbooks on WWII and altogether uncover siginificant aspects of remembrance.
This exhibition will be shown in all participating countries.
Please make your donations here. Thank you in advance.
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MEDIA
Slaveia Hristova (Balkan Assist, Bulgaria): 'The Citizens are Still Disappointed with the Politicians'
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To watch the interview in Russian please follow the link
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As long as the main focus of your activities is direct citizen participation in decision-making and your Association is a member of the Forum's Working Group "Social Issues and Civic Participation", you mostly deal with local communities and direct democracy tools. Looking back at more than 20 years since the crash of the Communist regime in the country, which changes can you observe in Bulgaria on municipal and regional level?
Changes I see have to do firstly with the state of civil society – 20 years ago there were no NGOs, especially not on the local and regional levels, institutions on all levels (local, regional, and national) were closed for citizens and thought citizens should be the ones to adapt to them and not the other way around. Citizens themselves expected nothing from institutions and did not allow themselves to criticise them or hold them accountable, dialogue between citizens and institutions was unconceivable. Now there are many NGOs and groups, institutions have the obligation to inform citizens of their intentions and actions, and discuss with them any significant decisions, bills, strategies, and programmes. People openly express their opinion and take part in public meetings, discussions, demonstrations, and protests. They demand things of those in power and expect to be heard and their opinion taken into consideration. Of course, there is much to be desired in this respect – discontent and distrust among citizens is still very high. They are disappointed with politicians, nearly 80 per cent of them feel they are represented neither at the local nor at the national or the European level.
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