WUS Austria Podgorica Office organized Third Panel Discussion on “Reclaiming Democracy”
Podgorica. On 13th of May, 2008, the third panel discussion
was held within the “Reclaiming Democracy” book presentation. The event
took place at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of
Montenegro.
The main purpose of this project by ERSTE Foundation,
implemented by WUS Austria, is the presentation of the book titled
„Reclaiming Democracy – Civil Society and Electoral Change in Central
and Eastern Europe“. This book is a joint project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States
(GMF) and ERSTE Foundation and implemented by WUS Austria. „Reclaiming
Democracy“ was edited by Joerg Forbrig and Pavol Demes (both GMF).
The panel was moderated by the Dean of the Faculty of Political
Sciences, Srdjan Darmanovic who welcomed all panelists, students who
attended discussion as well as WUS Austria who organised the event
itself.
Mr. Robin Gosejohann, representative of ERSTE Foundation made a short
introduction about this foundation. Also, he announced that the book
would be presented at faculties throughout Europe as it was intended
for students.
Other panelists:
- Anastasia Bezverkha, Visiting Dphil Student, University of Oxford, UK
- Miljenko Dereta, Executive Director of Civic Initiatives, Belgrade
- Joerg Forbrig, Senior Program Officer, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Bratislava
Ms
Anastasia Bezverkha talked about her personal activities in civil
society in Ukraine. By presenting the chronology of the protest in
Ukraine, Bezverkha said that the drivers of change were young people,
but that a great contribution was given by the generation of Ukrainians
who lived in the former USSR. Her speech was accompanied by a slide
show of photos from the Orange Revolution in 2004.
Mr Miljenko
Dereta spoke about the recent events in Serbia and compared the
political situation in Serbia and Montenegro. He was also talking about
the latest elections in Serbia and pointed out that the citizens of
Serbia started to realise how important it is to be a part of Europe.
Students and guests had an opportunity to hear one of the editors
and authors of the book. All participants took part in disscussion and
shared their experiences in the past as well as made connections with
present and future.
The event ended with a cocktail at the Faculty of Political Sciences.
Electronic version of this book you can find here
The discussion was covered by two daily newspapers, Vijesti and Dan –
you can download the articles and their English translation here – and by the Evening News on Montena Television. To see the clip click here (.mpg/97MB).
