New Europe Center at Forum2000 – the main international conference of the Czech Republic, which this year is dedicated to supporting Ukraine with a focus on the Czech presidency in the EU!

This year, the conference lasted from August 31 to September 2. Alyona Getmanchuk, director of New Europe Center and Leo Litra, senior fellow of the center, are participants in the event. Forum2000 was founded by Vaclav Havel in 1996, and since then it has traditionally been held in the Czech Republic. Its name this year is «Democracy’s Clear and Present Danger: how do we respond?».

More about the Forum via the link here.

Day 1

During the first day, the foreign ministers of Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine(!) took part in one-panel discussion:

“I think that although this is not the first time, it is still pleasant when a Ukrainian minister participates not only in meetings of EU foreign ministers, but also speaks on the same public platforms as them (in all senses of the word “on levels”). Equally important was the fact that the heads of foreign affairs of the two countries that “drank” us the most blood in the context of Ukraine’s acquisition of candidate status – Germany and the Netherlands – took part in the discussion about Ukraine and its future in the EU. Because it’s one thing when ministers of friendly Poland or the Baltic states say things like “Ukraine will be a member of the EU” or “Ukraine and the EU share a common future”, it’s another thing when Annalena Berbok (the first statement to the loud applause of the hall) or Wopke Hoekstra says it (second quote). All the ministers as one also stressed that Ukraine should win this war, and their countries should stay and support Ukraine as long as Ukraine needs it,” – Alyona Getmanchuk.

During the first day of the forum, the experts of the Center also took the opportunity to thank for their support and briefly voice our vision of Ukraine’s priorities for German Minister Annalena Berbock and Czech Minister Jan Lipavsky.

Day 2

“Eastern Partnership after the invasion”

This topic was discussed during the second day of Forum2000. Distinguished speakers from the EU, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Germany took part in the discussion. This part of the forum was moderated by Leo Litra, a senior fellow at the New Europe Center.

“The Eastern Partnership (EaP) needs to be radically reformed but this has to happen rather after the war in order to fit the context. Also, the EaP should not be an obstacle for the candidate countries to complete the accession to the EU. All in all, this process could happen if there is a strong leadership on the side of the EU, which some argue, it is not the case. No matter how it goes on with the EaP, winning the war against Russia is crucial as well as integrating the aspiring and reformed countries. In the meantime, EU could keep EaP initiative alive as long as it helps better to channel the assistance to future members,” Leo Litra’s summary of the discussion.

The speakers of the discussion were:

• Katarína Mathernová, Deputy Director General, European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (Slovakia)
• Stefan Meister, Head, Program International Order and Democracy German Council on Foreign Relations, Member, International Coalition for Democratic Renewal (Germany);
• Nikoloz Samkharadze, Chair, Foreign Relations Committee, Parliament (Georgia);
• Pavlo Klimkin, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs (Ukraine)
• Mihai Popșoi, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Moldova.

Day 3

“Nothing provokes Putin as much as the policy of not provoking Putin“, – once again reminded the director of the New Europe Center Alyona Getmanchuk. This time for the participants of Forum 2000, who are concerned about a possible nuclear attack by the Russian Federation, during her speech at the panel discussion “International Order: How respond to Russia’s war?”.

During the discussion, Alyona Getmanchuk also voiced the urgent need for Ukrainian victory, which ultimately depends on what the international order will look like after this terrible war.

Other speakers of the panel discussion:

• Jagannath Panda, Head, Stockholm Centre for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs, ISDP ( Sweden, India);
• Konstantin von Eggert, Journalist, Political Commentator (Russia)
• Wojciech Kononczuk, Deputy Director, Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW) (Poland);
• Moderator: Ralf Fücks, Managing Director, Center for Liberal Modernity, Member, International Coalition for Democratic Renewal (Germany)