European Young Journalist Award, EYJA 2009 - Final Conference

Being a European

"I watched the inauguration of Barrack Obama. That is a creative nation with a strong will. The remaining nations namely China, Russia, India are developing. They are not waiting for Europeans. Time is not on our side, we must speed up" - Dr Jochen Thies


By MILENA STOŠIĆ
from Berlin, GERMANY
(EYJA winner in Serbia)


The final conference for the continental European competition - European Young Journalist Award 2009, which this year is held under the motto, "Enlarge your vision", brought together national winners from 28 European nations in Berlin, from August 29 until September 2. This competition, organized for the second year in a row by the European Commission, the European on-line magazine Café Babel and the organization of young journalists European Youth Press lasted until the May 31, and after that the judges selected the best articles from every country, published in the former period, on the theme of the enlarging and the future of the European Union.

Being in the capital city of Germany, for the young journalists, had an educational and touristic character representing one unforgettable experience. Visits to the German historical museum and the National parliament were organized, there was an opportunity to meet with the representatives of the European comission and associates from the media, as well as an opportunity to get to know the city and its history, on the twentieth anniversary from the fall of the Berlin wall. For the duration of this short award visit, on the September 1st, a series of workshops and the final meeting for the young journalists was held, their older associates, as well as the the representatives of national judges, where many questions of crucial importance for Europe and the expansion of the EU were discussed. All of that exactly on the day when Germany has started the World War II by attacking Poland, and in the year of marking two decades since the fall of the Iron Curtain, as well as five years since the last circle of EU enlargement.

Where does the EU begin and where does the EU end?

Exactly on that symbolic meaning were called upon Matthias Petschke, Head of the Representation of the European Comission in Germany and Gisela Gauggel-Robinson, Head of the Communication Unit, European Comission, DG Enlargement, who opened the final conference with their speeches.

The keynote speech was held by Professor Dr.Dr h.c. Werner Weidenfeld, Director of C.A.P and Professor for Political Science at LMU Munich looking back on the fall of the Iron Curtain, and opening up the question of the future and the difficulty with a single European identity. As the current most pressing problem, Professor Weidenfeld, stated that it is the non-transparancy of the European legislature: "If one is reading some text, for example the The Treaty of Lisbon, one can see how difficult it is to understand." He also stated that European integrations should be more transparent, that security must be strengthened, especially underlining the neccessity of the strategic partnership (with UN, China, India, Rusia...) - "Europe must develop as a strategic community."

Throughout the conference two panel discussions were also held. The first had for its theme, again in the spirit of the 20 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the question - has the integration of the Central and Southern European nations in the EU changed the face of the Old continent and in what way?

"Identity can be a main problem. Where does the EU begin and where does it end?" began the discussion Karl de Meyer - Les Echoes, France. Dr Jochen Thies - Deutschlandradio, Germany added to that the importance of the question of security and that of a defensive identity. He stated that Europe must develop a defensive identity and a European army: "The Economic Crisis has shed light on the European deficits. In the next 10 years this will be of significant importance."

The participants in this panel discussion - Dr. des.Andrea Despot, Seminar Director of the European Academy Berlin, already mentioned Karl de Meyer and Dr Jochen Thies, and Piotr Jendroszczyk - Rzeczpospolita tbc, Poland, concluded that within the EU and the politics of expansion there is still disagreement, beginning with the creation of a single army, to the problems of economic nature and the position of the older EU member states that frequently take their membership for granted, to the instability of the Balkan region and the impact of the remaining continents.

"If the Iron Curtain no longer exists materially, that does not mean that Europe is united and that there are no problems. As well, it is important to promote qualities like solidarity. There exists a desire from Eastern European towards greater understanding from the West," explained Piotr Jendroszczyk. Besides that he also expressed sorrow mainly for the reason that the EU did not manage to stop the war battles of the Balkans.

When the word is about the influence of the remaining world powers and the future tendencies Dr Jochen Thies believes that USA will be the leading country: "I watched the inauguration of Barrack Obama. That is a creative nation with a strong will. The remaining nations namely China, Russia, India are developing. They are not waiting for Europeans. Time is not on our side, we must speed up. The locomotive needs steam." He turned on the attention of the status of Turkey, who has been a candidate for EU membership over the last ten years, and on the opening question to what extent is this country genuinely similar to the remainder of Europe: "Can Turkey really be the bridge towards the Middle East? I really do not see it", he said. The question of Turkey's prospects in relation to the EU was discussed in detail on one of the two workshops that were held concurrently.

Does the wind of change still blow?

The second workshop dealt with the European prospects in relation to the Western Balkans - a political and technical term developed to include six countries of the former Yugoslavia and Albania. This seminar was led by the representatives of the Serbian and Croatian Embassies in Berlin - Milan Gojković and Silvio Kus, as well as Professor Miroljub Radojković from Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences. Taking into consideration the instability of this region and the numerous problems - economic, then unfinished democratic, the large risk of the corruption of the political elite, the belittling of the governmental laws and the frequent misuse of multi-ethnicity, tradition and religion, Professor Radojković opened the discussion with the question if the wind of change still blows.

During the workshop it was confirmed that with diverse well reasoned arguments (security and economic reasons, the strengthening of the reform processes, securing the political base for the development of the society, the civilization of the region and the promotion of the EU values, opening perspectives for the younger generations...), what is the two-sided benefit of the inclusion of the countries from the Western Balkans in the European Union. Croatia seems as the closest to the final goal in this process, and Serbia would either way have benefit from Croatia's inclusion in the EU, contrary to large disagreement in the past.

As Silvio Kus stated, in Croatia the traditional system had to undergoe numerous changes in order to accept aqui communitaire: "We still have to lower the number of courts in Croatia and we have to co-operate with the Hauge tribunal. A lot still has to be done on the support for the public." As far as Serbia, Montenegro (potential candidates) and Macedonia (candidate for EU membership) are concerned, these countries will be on the White Schengen list from January the following year, which is a huge step forward.

"We in Serbia support the elimination of visas for Bosnia and Hercegovina and Albania, as well," stated Professor Radojković. It seems that the participants of the workshop were most interested in the status of Kosovo and the relation of Serbia with the one-sided proclamation of independence. Milan Gojković offered the official standing of the government as a speech on this question, stating that Serbia insisted on that, that Kosovo in relation to international laws is a part of Serbia and that independence is unacceptable. "A lot of international emotion is tied to Kosovo," he added. Unfortunately, the time limit did not allow a longer and more in-depth discussion on this theme, but one general optimistic perspective of this region could be concluded, as well as the strong tendency that it can part with the unproductive stagnation in the past.

Is there life after death?

During the final phase of the conference, the second panel discussion was held under the title The Enlarging of the EU and the Future Perspectives, on which the representatives of the media participated - Ljubica Gojgić (B92, Serbia), Leyla Tavsanoglu (Cumhuriyet, Turkey) and Željko Ivanović (Vijesti, Montenegro) and the moderator Dr Dušan Reljić (Senior Research Associate, EU Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, German Insititute for International and Security Affairs), who began the discussion with the question - Is there life after death? - addressing the EU.

"The European Union is the best thing that happened to Europe. Without the EU stability is possible, but the EU is the best solution for us. It is worth the invested energy into this project," stated Ljubica Gojgić. She also noticed the similarities between Belgrade and Berlin mentioning that the next year is the fall of another wall - the wall of sanctions in Serbia that has stood strongly over the last 20 years. On this panel discussion for the very first time during the day was the interest of the US in this area mentioned, on which Ljubica Gojgić and Željko Ivanović debated. They underlined that the USA has a strong interest in the continued conflict and that it is actually Washington that is the main master of the conflict.

When the word is about the Balkans, Ljubica Gojgić concluded with sorrow that Europe did not greatly bring stability to the Balkan region. The panel also dealt with the relationship between the media and the political themes and democracy. "The media is very important for national and international relations. That is why the independence of the media is very important," pointed out Leyla Tavsanoglu, adding that a country that does not have independent and free media cannot be called a democracy, and she criticized the state of Turkey in this context.

EU is not Europe, EU is Only a Part of It

During the day an interesting question was presented by Christian De Bruyne, European Commission Representation and Member of Belgium National Jury, addressing those present coming from countries of non-EU states, more specifically towards Serbs. The question was posed - Do you feel like Europeans? Do you present yourselves as Europeans? After that followed the thinking what has precedence, being European or a representative of some nation. The question provoked more answers which poured into one - of course we feel like Europeans! Because Serbia is a part of Europe. Also like one of the present mentioned that EU is not Europe, EU is only a part of it. As Professor Weidenfeld stated at the beginning of the day in his speech: "It is important how one feels." For example, he mentioned that Serbs (!) can feel more European, than Bulgarians who are already in the EU.

The conference ended in the late evening hours, and after that same night the winners were awarded certificates with the logo of the European Young Journalists Award with the signature of the Commissioner for the Enlargement of the EU, Olli Rehn.


(Published: 12.09.2009.)