The Embassy of Austria representing the Austrian Presidency of CEI in 2014 and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College London

invite you to an International Symposium

25 Years of the Central European Initiative and 25 Years from the Fall of the Iron Curtain

Date: Thursday, 10 April 2014, 2:00pm to 7:00pm

Venue: Denys Holland Lecture Theatre (UCL Faculty of Laws) Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens WC1H 0EG London

Please RSVP to http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/25-years-of-the-central-european-initiative-tickets- 10530548153

On the occasion of the Austrian chairmanship of the Central European Initiative (CEI) this symposium will bring together academics and former political decision makers to analyse and discuss the fundamental changes in Central Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain 25 years ago with a particular focus on the role of the CEI in renewing regional cooperation in an area which covers today 18 countries and reaches from Trieste to Kiev.

The organisers are thankful for the sponsorship provided by Erste Group Bank and for the support of the London embassies of , Romania and Poland as well as of the Austrian Cultural Forum.

Programme

14:00 Welcome

Professor Slavo Radošević (Acting Director, SSEES)

Dr Emil Brix (Ambassador of the Republic of Austria)

Featured speakers

Moderator: Michael Žantovský (Ambassador of the Czech Republic)

14:10 Professor Paul Lendvai (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF; Co-Publisher “Europäische Rundschau”): The past 25 years viewed through the prism of European and regional history

15:10 Professor Zoran Milutinović (Professor of South Slav Literature and Modern Literary Theory, SSEES-UCL): The Balkans in the European Mirror

16:10 Professor Florian Bieber (Professor of Southeastern Europe and Director of the Centre for South East European Studies at the University of Graz): The Crisis of Democracy in Central and Southeastern Europe

17:10 – 17:30: Coffee

17:30 – 19:00: Round Table: ‘Perspectives for Regional Cooperation’

Participants

Gianni De Michelis (former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Italy)

Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu (former Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Romania)

Dimitrij Rupel (former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Slovenia)

Olaf Osica (Director of OSW, Centre for Eastern Studies, University of Warsaw)

Chair: Eric Gordy (SSEES-UCL)

19:00:

Closing remarks by Giovanni Caracciolo di Vietri (Ambassador, Secretary General of the CEI) Participants in the symposium

25 Years of the Central European Initiative and 25 Years from the Fall of the Iron Curtain

Florian Bieber is Professor of Southeast European Studies and director of the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, Austria. He studied at Trinity College (USA), the University of Vienna and Central European University, and received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Vienna. Between 2001 and 2006 he worked in Belgrade (Serbia) and Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) for the European Centre for Minority Issues. He is a Visiting Professor at the Nationalism Studies Program at Central European University and has taught at the University of Kent, Cornell University, the University of Bologna and the University of Sarajevo.

Emil Brix is Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the United Kingdom. Since entering the Austrian Foreign Service in 1982, he has been Director-General for Foreign Cultural Policies and Director for Cultural Programs, and has served in diplomatic posts in Warsaw and Cracow. He has served as Secretary-General of the Austrian Research Association and as President of the European Union National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC). A member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in 2009 he was awarded the Gloria Artis medal for outstanding service to Polish culture.

Giovanni Caracciolo di Vietri was appointed Secretary General of the Central European Initiative in January 2013 after having held the post of Italian Ambassador to France from 2009 to 2012. From 2006 to 2009 he was Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva. From 2004 to 2006 he was Director General for European Countries and Regional Cooperation at the MFA in Rome and from 2000 to 2004 he served as Ambassador to Belgrade. Other functions he occupied include that of Deputy Diplomatic Adviser to the President of the Republic of Italy, Consul General in Paris and Deputy Director General for Emigration and Social Affairs at the MFA in Rome.

Gianni De Michelis was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy from 1989 to 1992. He had previously served as Minister for State Holdings and Minister of Work and Social Security. He was leader of the Socialist Party group in the in 1987-1988 and Deputy Prime Minister in 1988-1989. From 2004 to 2009 he was member of the . He is currently President of the Ipalmo Institute for Relations Between Italy and the Countries of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

Eric Gordy is a political sociologist and Senior Lecturer in Politics of Southeast Europe at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) of University College London. He has taught at universities across Europe and North America. His publications include the books The Culture of Power in Serbia: Nationalism and the Destruction of Alternatives (1999) and Guilt, Responsibility and Denial: The Past at Stake in Post-Milošević Serbia (2013). He holds a BA from Swarthmore College and an MA and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.

Paul Lendvai is an Austrian writer and longtime journalist born in Hungary who fled his home country after 1956. From 1960 to 1982 he was the Vienna correspondent of the Financial Times and columnist for Austrian, German and Swiss newspapers and broadcasters. From 1982 to 1987 he was Head of the Eastern Europe Department of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). From April 1987 to October 1998 Prof. Lendvai was manager of Radio Austria International. He is now head of the "Europa Studios", the monthly international TV talk show and writes a weekly column for the daily newspaper "Der Standard" (Vienna). He is the author of sixteen books on Eastern Europe. He is co-publisher and editor-in-chief of the quarterly magazine Europäische Rundschau. He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards. He was elected a Fellow of the Center for Applied Policy Research in Munich in 2003.

Zoran Milutinović is Professor of South Slav Literature and Modern Literary Theory at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) of University College London. He has previously taught at the University of Belgrade (1989-1998, 2000- 2003), and was a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Nottingham (1997), Wesleyan University (1999), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1999-2000), and has held research fellowships from the University of Ljubljana (1990-91), the Open Society Institute (1998-2000), and the Leverhulme Foundation (2008). He is editor- in-chief of Brill's book series Balkan Studies Library and Director of the inter- university Centre for East European Language-Based Area Studies (CEELBAS) which UCL SSEES leads in a consortium with the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester and with seven other leading universities working together in the CEELBAS network.

Olaf Osica is Director of Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW) of the University of Warsaw. He received his PhD from the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute in Florence in 2007. In 2005–2010 he worked as an expert at the Natolin European Centre, where he took part in the research programme “Euro-Atlantic security in the 21st century”. Previously, he was employed as an analyst at the Center for International Relations in Warsaw. He is a member of the editorial board of the quarterlies New Europe. Natolin Review and Sprawy Międzynarodowe [International Affairs] quarterlies. Since 2011 he has been a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Western Affairs in Poznań.

Slavo Radošević is Professor of Industry and Innovation Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) of University College London. His research interests are in the area of science, technology, industry, innovation and growth in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and he is involved in international projects in this area. He has published extensively on this topic in international journals, and is author of International Technology Transfer and Catch- Up in Economic Development (1999) and co-editor of four books industrial structuring, knowledge-based economy and science policy in Europe.

Dimitrij Rupel is a Professor of Sociology and International Politics at the Faculty of State and International Studies of the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), a writer, a politician and a diplomat. He has spent approximately 10 years as Foreign Minister in the governments chaired by prime ministers Peterle, Drnovšek, Rop and Janša. In 1992, he was elected to the Parliament; in 1994, he became the Mayor of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, and between 1997 and 2000, he served as the

Ambassador of Slovenia to the United States of America. His latest book, The President or As It Was, was published in October 2009.

Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu was Foreign Minister of Romania from 2004 to 2007, director of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service from 2007 to 2012, and Prime Minister in 2012. He was a professor of the University of Iași until 1998, and from 2000 to 2004 was a representative of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. He has been head of the Civic Force Party since 2012.

Michael Žantovský was a founding member in 1989 of the Czech chapter of P.E.N., the international organization of writers and translators, banned in Czechoslovakia during the communist era. In November 1989, he was a founding member of the Civic Forum, an umbrella organization that coordinated the overthrow of the communist regime. In January 1990, he became the press secretary and spokesman for President Václav Havel. He was also the political director of the President´s office. In July 1992, he was appointed the Czechoslovak Ambassador to the United States, and in January 1993 reappointed as the Czech Ambassador to the United States where he served until February 1997. In November 1996, he was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. In 1996, and again in 1998 and 2000, he was elected the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security of the Senate. In 1997 and in 2001 he was elected the President of the Civic Democratic Alliance, a parliamentary political party. He completed his term in the Senate in 2002 and from 2003 until 2009 he served as the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Israel. He has served as Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United Kingdom since 5 October 2009.