Draft Programme
Experts’ Roundtable on
Close up: Migration and the Viségrad countries – a more complex picture
Challenges for a common EU approach towards migration
Wednesday, 27 April 2016 at 11:00 h Venue: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung EU Office, Rue du Taciturne 38
Compared to global migration movements the number of migrants and asylum seekers arriving in Europe is relatively low; nevertheless, the “refugee crisis” puts European solidarity to a test and causes serious debates and disputes between Member States. While in some of them authorities, local governments and civil society initiatives are trying to deal with the day to day challenges of providing shelter, legal assistance and long-term integration; political representatives of Visegrád countries, namely Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, refuse to take in refugees, in particular within the European relocation mechanism. Based on strong xenophobic and islamophobic remarks, refugees are portrayed as threat to national security. However, the picture is much more complex – across the Central European countries civil society initiatives have collected donations they distributed among refugees from Greece along the Balkan Route up to Germany; a field hospital has been set up; petitions of solidarity have been signed by thousands of people. But all these initiatives have not found their way into European media yet.
Against this background the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung is organizing this experts’ roundtable to have a closer look at migration in the Viségrad countries and the position of the V4 regarding the “refugee crisis”. Giving a voice to civil society organisations and experts from the region, we want to discuss with representatives of EU Institutions, Think Tanks and NGOs in Brussels key challenges, policy priorities and recent proposals for a common approach to migration, asylum and integration in the European Union.
10:45 h Registration
11:00 h Welcome by Uwe Optenhögel, Director, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung EU Office 11:10 h Inputs by Márta Pardavi, Director, Helsinki Committee Hungary Eva Dohnalova, Policy Officer, Consortium of Migrant Assisting NGOs, Czech Republic
11:30 h Comments by MEP Josef Weidenholzer (Austria), Member of the Committee Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Subcommittee on Human Rights in the European Parliament MEP Péter Niedermüller (Hungary), Member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament (tbc) Judit Tanczos, Legal Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Group
12:00 h Discussion Moderated by Friederike Kamm, Policy Officer, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung EU Office
13:00 h End of the event followed by a light lunch