06 December 2005 12:15 -
06 December 2005 15:30
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Prague
PASOS Secretariat, Prague, Czech Republic
Strengthening the Transition to Democracy, a PASOS roundtable, Prague, 6 December 2005
The Orange revolution in Kiev coincided with the founding Assembly of PASOS in Prague in December 2004, and led to the first public statement by PASOS, which urged the EU to open its doors to eventual membership for the Ukraine. On the first anniversary of the Orange revolution, PASOS held a roundtable debate in Prague in conjunction with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, to examine the lessons of transition of countries such as the new EU member-states, and ways that policy centres can work with other stakeholders to strengthen the democratic development of Ukraine and, when freedom comes, of Belarus.
The roundtable marked the launch in Prague of the international secretariat of PASOS. The key speakers included Pavol Demeš, regional director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Andrei Sannikov, international co-ordinator of Charter 97 in Belarus, and former Czech Ambassador to the US Alexandr Vondra (who in 2006 became Czech Foreign Minister, then Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs).
They were joined by PASOS members Michael B. Gorny, Executive Director of Strategia - St. Petersburg Center for Humanities and Political Studies, David Král, Director of EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, Prague, and Jacek Kucharczyk, Director of Programming at the Institute of Public Affairs, Warsaw.
Moderated by PASOS Executive Director Jeff Lovitt, the panel also included RFE/RL experts Roman Kupchinsky and Jan Maksymiuk, Cameron Munter, Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy, Simon Martin, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy, Milan Nič, Programme Director of Pontis Foundation, Slovakia, and Marek Toman of the Transformation Co-operation Unit at the Czech Foreign Ministry.
The event served to introduce PASOS to key stakeholders, policy institutes, embassies, government officials, civil society groups, and media in Prague as an important voice on regional issues and as a vital resource connecting the media and other stakeholders to the expertise of the PASOS network.
