18th Economic Forum KrynicaTalk of Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Stavros Costopoulos Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, at the 18th Economic Forum in Krynica Zdrój between 10-13 September 2008 in a session organized by the Warsaw based think tank demosEUROPA – Centre for European Strategy in cooperation with the representation of the European Commission in Poland. The session was devoted to two dimensions of the EU’s neighborhood policy: The Eastern Partnership and the Union for the Mediterranean – complementary of mutually exclusive? The debate examined the fundamental tenets behind these new initiatives, methods of their implementation as well as strategic challenges and opportunities for relations with the countries included in the Partnership. The newest report produced by demosEUROPA entitled The European Union and its neighbourhood in a changing world, which defines a new strategic relationship with the Eastern and Southern neighbours, was also presented during the session.

Speakers:

Grażyna Bernatowicz, Under-Secretary of State, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

John O’Rourke, Head of Unit D1 – European Neighbourhood Policy General Coordination, DG RELEX, European Commission

Alan Mayhew, Jean Monnet Professor & Professorial Fellow, University of Sussex

Janis Emmanouilidis, Stavros Costopoulos Research Fellow, ELIAMEP (Athens)

Paweł Świeboda, Director, demosEUROPA – Centre for European Strategy (chair)

The debate was linked to a project organized by Notre Europe and the Fondation pour l’Innovation politique (Fondapol), which brought together a group of European think tanks with the aim of making recommendations to the EU’s next trio presidency including France, the Czech Republic and Sweden (July 2008 – December 2009). The “Think Global – Act European” (TGAE) project includes 13 renowned think tanks including ELIAMEP, which contributed five papers to the final report. The other think tanks participating in the TGAE project were Bruegel, CEPS, CER, demosEUROPA, DIIS, ECFR, EPC, EUROPEUM, SIEPS, SWP.