CEI INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL

17th International Summer School
"Beyond Enlargement.
The Wider Europe and the New Neighbourhood"

Faenza, September 4th to 17th

From the 4th to the 17th of September the 17th Edition of the CEI International Summer School took place in Faenza, a famous town in the Emilia Romagna Region. As usual, it was organized by the Institute for East-Central Europe and the Balkans with the support of the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the European Commission.

The title of the Summer School, "Beyond Enlargement. The Wider Europe and the New Neighbourhood", clearly indicates the summer school's goal, which is to bring young people from Eastern Europe together in order to share views and interact, to provide a forum for discussing common issues as well as the opportunity for cultural exchange.

The lecturers came from some of the most prestigious European and American Universities as well as from relevant professional contexts.

The 39 participants came from a variety of European countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia and Turkey.

This year the two courses of the Summer School shared an emphasis on the role and potential of civil society and, accordingly, many participants were selected from civil society professions. The School consisted of 2 different courses, the first one "Diversity management, governance and the role of civil society networks" more dedicated to political and sociological subjects and the other one "Sustainable development, green economy and the role of civil society networks" focusing on sustainability issues in the economic field, for a total of 60 hours of lectures, workshops and interdisciplinary events.

An intensive and rich two-week programme for both courses followed an engaging Opening Session, held on Monday the 6th: starting with welcoming addresses by Giovanni Malpezzi, Mayor of Faenza, who gave students some information about Faenza, its past and its traditions, and Claudio Casadio, President of the Province of Ravenna. The tradition of the Summer School was recalled by Paolo Zurla, Dean of the Faculty of Political Science "R. Ruffilli" of Forli (University of Bologna) . He explained the rationale of the Summer School and emphasized that it has been regularly organized since 1994.

A special guest of the Opening Session was Colette Daiute (City University of New York) who presented an interesting psycho-political science perspective on the opportunities that young people have to intervene in the political scene.

In the framework of an interdisciplinary event which took place at the end of the first week, on September 9th Vittorio Prodi from the European Parliament gave a speech on sustainable development as a tool for peace and the role of Europe.

Another important guest was Michael Leigh, Director General of the DG Enlargement at the European Commission. Meeting all participants of the summer school on September 14th, he outlined the perspectives of enlargement and the Neighbourhood Policy for the decade 2010-2020, following his speech with a lively session in which the audience had the opportunity to ask him questions and clarification on some issues.

In addition to the traditional presence of several leading academics, the programme was enriched by an innovative workshop on multiculturalism held by the consultant David Solomons from London, which was especially successful among participants.

At the end of the summer school, on Friday the 16th, a Closing Session was held with a final lecture by MEP Jelko Kacin, who dealt with Europe's future challenges and perspectives.

The Summer School was an important opportunity for discussion between young people from different parts of Europe. The diversity of this experience was definitely one of the main features of the interesting debates that developed after each lesson. This is one of the strengths of the summer school, an aspect that has been developed and strengthened throughout the summer school's 17 years.

This year, as part of the summer school's academic programme the participants were divided into groups. Each group had to prepare a "project proposal" starting with a subject chosen from those covered in the lectures. They then worked closely with their tutors in workshops, obtaining suggestions and advice.

At the end of the school, participants were awarded a final Certificate. The work of one of the participants from the economic field, Ms Maja Rajačić, was considered excellent by both tutors and professors.

Lorenzo Latella,
PhD candidate in Diversity Management and Governance,
New Bulgarian University,
Sofia

Emilio Urbinati,
Province of Rimini
University of Bologna

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