Details

Sofia Platform

Ziel ist es, die positiven und negativen Erfahrungen des Transformationsproszesse von 1989ff an die jungen, demokratisch orientierten Kräfte nach den Umbrüchen in Tunesien und Ägypten weiterzugeben.

Die Konferenz ist initiiert vom Bulgarischen Außenministerium in Kooperation mit dem European Council on Foreign Relations.

Nähere Einzelheiten entnehmen Sie bitte dem Programm:

Central and Eastern Europe’s Transition and Change in the Middle East

Tentative conference agenda

Working Language: English

Translation will be provided in: Bulgarian, French and Arabic

Venue: Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan

5 MAY 2011

9:30 Registration

10:30 – 11:30 Opening remarks

Boyko Borissov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria

Keynote speakers

Nickolay Mladenov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria

Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe

Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, representative of the OSCE Chairmanship

11:30 – 13:00 Panel 1: The Political Transition

The panel will offer (re)assessment of the lessons learnt – best practices and mistakes made in Central and Eastern Europe’s transition. It will address an array of critical issues, such as negotiated transition and the role of round tables, transitional justice and dealing with the legacies of the old regimes, etc.

Keynote speaker:

Janos Martonyi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hungary

Moderator: Istvan Gyarmati, President, International Centre for Democratic Transition, Hungary

Panelists:

Zhelyu Zhelev, President of Bulgaria (1990-1997)

Alexander Smolar, President, Stefan Batory Foundation, Poland

Taoufik Ouanes, International lawyer, Tunisia

Mohamed Anwar El Sadat, Chairman of El Sadat Association for Social Development, Egypt

Ahmed Atef Dorra, film director and activist, Egypt

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch

14:30 – 16:00 Panel 2: Civil Society and Free Media

Functioning civil society and free media are essential for free societies. The panel will focus on two broad areas. Firstly, it will discuss the experience of different types of civil society organizations, including independent think tanks, human rights, etc., building networks and coalitions. Secondly, the panel will discuss the challenges of establishing and maintaining free media, legal and institutional guarantees, establishment of independent public media, strong investigative journalism and independent media content.

Moderator: Ivo Indzev, journalist, Bulgaria

Panelists:

Krzysztof Stanowski,Under-Secretary of State, MFA Poland

Alexander Andreev, editor, Deutsche Welle, Bulgaria

Pavol Demes, Director- GMF-Bratislava, Slovakia

Wasim Alqershi, Organization committee for Yemen Revolution, Yemen

Amani El-Khayat, ON TV, Egypt

Lamia Grar, Executive director of Arab Institute for Human Rights, Tunisia

16:00 – 16:30 Break

16:30 – 18:00 Panel 3: Anti-corruption Strategies

Corruption and lack of accountability and transparency have been among the main grievances that caused the revolutions in the Arab World. The panel will focus on developing anti-corruption strategies to address these deficits. The interplay of legal, institutional and civil society approaches will be discussed.

Moderator: Minna Järvenpää, International Advocacy Director, Open Society Foundations

Panelists:

Ognyan Minchev, Chairman of the Board, Transparency International, Bulgaria

Jana Hybášková, Head of EU Delegation to Iraq

Sasha Bezuhanova, Member of the Board, European Council of Women in Technologies

Abderrazak Kilani, President, Ordre national des avocats, Tunisia

Fouad Abdelmoumni, economist, Morocco

18:00 – 19:00 Presentation: Capacity Building for Democratic Institutions

The network of Schools of Political Studies of the Council of Europe aims to promote democratic pluralism, human rights and the rule of law. This initiative constitutes an important network of young politicians, civil society leaders, media professionals, business people, and thousands of alumni from the in the CEE region. The schools’ program focuses on all aspects and challenges of transition and the consolidation of democracy.

Moderator: Andrey Kovatchev, Member of the European Parliament, Bulgaria

Julian Popov, Chairman of the Board, School of Politics, Bulgaria

Sonja Licht, President of the Belgrade Fund of Political Excellence, Serbia

19:00 Dinner

Welcome: Daniel Korski, European Council on Foreign Relations;

Levon Hamparzumian, CEO of UniCredit-Bulbank

Address by: Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament - video address

6 MAY 2011

9:30 – 11:00Panel 4: Reforming Political Institutions

The panel will focus on a number of broad areas of developing political institutions: constitutional changes; political parties and free elections; political change and transformation and consolidation of state institutions, local authorities, and public services.

Moderator: Radoslaw Markowski, Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Political Studies

and Center for the Study of Democracy, Poland

Panelists:

Philip Dimitrov, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria (1991 -1992), Head of EU Delegation to Georgia

Dimitris Droutsas, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Greece;

Sven Alkalaj, Minister of Foreign Affairs, BiH

Abdel Monem Abouel Fetouh, Formal member of the leadership of Muslim Brotherhood and founder of a New Islamic Party “El Nahda, Egypt

Isam al Khafaji, special advisor and consultant on the social and economic affairs of the Middle East, the Netherlands

Sihem Ben Sendrine, Spokesperson - Conseil national pour les libertés en Tunisie, Tunisia

11:00 – 11:30 Break

11:30 – 12:15 Address by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch

13:30 – 15:15 Panel 5: What Future Role for the EU in the MENA Region?

This panel will be recorded by the Bulgarian National Television. The panel aims to elicit the expectations of Arab activists and leaders for a new EU response and contribution. The discussion should focus on ideas for new EU policies in support of transformation in the Middle East and North Africa. Particular emphasis should be made on what role for countries from Central and Eastern Europe.

Moderator: Boyko Vassilev, Journalist, BNT, Bulgaria

Panelists:

Nickolay Mladenov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bulgaria

Luis Amado, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Portugal

Carl Bildt, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sweden

Hazem Al Ameen, Al Hayat newspaper, Lebanon

George Ishak, Activist and member of the leadership of Kefaya, Egypt

15:15 – 16:00 Break

16:00 – 17:30 Panel 6: The Way Ahead

Participants in this concluding plenary debate will be speakers only from the Middle East who should discuss the next steps forward and the relevance of Central and East European transition experience to their region.

Moderator: Nadim Shehadi, Associate Fellow - Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House

Panelists:

Theodore Karasik, Director, Research and Development, INEGMA, Dubai

Hassen Annabi, State Secretary, Ministry of Education, Tunisia

Aboubakr Jamaï, founder and editor, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, Morocco

Basem Kamel, Member of revolution youth coalition, Egypt

17:30 Closing remarks

Ivan Krastev, Center for Liberal Strategies, Member of the Board of ECFR, Bulgaria

18:30 Transfer to MFA

19:00 Buffet Dinner (at MFA)

7 MAY 2011

Departure of participants