Summer School

The Eastern Partnership between Blockage and Revitalization

Venue: Oradea University, Period: 6-13 June 2018 Open to: PhD students and postdoctoral researchers (maximum 4 years after thesis defend) Available places for UAIC: 3 Deadline for application:  2 April 2018

Costs:

The organizers bear the cost of accommodation and meals during the summer school (7 days). Travel costs are not-covered by the project. No Participation fees.

Certification:

Participants will receive at the end of the programme a certificate of attendance.     

Selection procedure

Applicants must send the following documents: •    CV Europass (should include relevant published papers/conferences on the summer school topics) •    A Cover Letter (500-1000 characters), connecting the individual research interests/results with the Summer School topics and objectives. •    Documents should be sent to the email address enacted.network@gmail.com: with the subject name: Participation to Oradea Summer School The event is organized within the framework of the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Project ENACTED European Union and its neighbourhood. Network for enhancing EU’s actorness in the eastern borderlands 2017- 2625

The context    

Considering the evolutions of the events following the security crisis of Eastern Europe, how do you consider the state of the Eastern Partnership? Can we talk about a blockage or a revitalization? A.    There was a blockage present well before the Vilnius Summit – a blockage of the functioning: -    instead of multilateralism we have used bilateralism, -    instead of differentiation we have used individualization, -    instead of transferring our norms and values by using networking we have used a hegemonic spirit B.    Following the crisis of Eastern Ukraine, we have entered a blockage of the EU-Eastern Partnership system -    we have abandoned the pro-active logic for a reactive logic -    we have given up working in these countries with the “European supporters” (civil society, minorities, etc.) by privileging working with authorities, who are either overwhelmed by the situation, or have the culture of concealing the European spirit -    we focused on the political elites without paying much attention to the needs of the populations in these countries

The scientific approach

Taking advantage of the knowledge of some well-known experts in the field of EU Eastern Border Studies, from EU Member States situated at the EU Eastern Border (Debrecen - Hungary, Warsaw - Poland, Iasi, Oradea and Suceava - Romania) and from the Eastern Partnership countries (Minsk – Belarus, Chisinau – Moldova, Chernivtsi and Odessa – Ukraine), the summer school participants (PhD Students and Post-PhD Students, no later the 4  years after) will be able to interact in order to come up with ideas and proposals for the revitalization of the Eastern Partnership. The organizers propose the following discussion roadmap: 1.    EU must work to cancel the elements that lead to a blockage of the functioning and move to a revitalization activity of the Eastern Partnership (Riga Summit of 21-22 May 2015 stressed the impor- tance of the development of multilateral cooperation projects). 2.    A differentiation within the Eastern Partnership of two groups, BUM (Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova) and AGA (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan). For each group is necessary to favour a micro-regional integration, but with the support of the EU and mainly the support of the neighbouring countries which are EU members or associated states (as is Turkey for the AGA countries.) 3.    Provide a quick response on the future of EU’s relations with these countries through an EU integra- tion schedule and with „prices” (such as the removal of visa for the citizens of these countries in maximum one year). 4.    Prevent the EU from using “hard” means (political pressure) and favour the “soft” means to create pressure on political elites (great support for non-governmental actors: independent mass media, NGOs, churches, etc.) 5.    Supporting the companies from EU member countries that will develop investment projects in at least 2 countries of the Eastern Partnership and that will provide a minimum of 100 jobs / country. 6.    Bigger involvement of EU member countries in the regional integration with Eastern Partnership countries (cross-border gateways, inter-university cooperation, institutional cooperation, etc.) 7.    Launching of a broader reflection project on the revitalization of the Eastern Partnership (following this summer school in Oradea).