Events

The main idea behind the Forum is to create a civic platform advocating for cross-border cooperation and raising its political profile in view of the huge potential of cross-border initiatives to improve daily life for the approximately one third of Europe’s population which lives in border regions

November 16, Wednesday

Arrival, accommodation, cultural event, welcoming dinner

November 17, Thursday

10-00 – 11-00 Plenary session. General remarks. Presentations of the topics and goals for the workshops

11-00 – 13-00, 14-00 – 15-00 Workshops on the topics

1. Current problems and perspectives of the cross-border cooperation in the Carpathian Region.
2. Role of SMEs and civil society institutions in promoting cross-border cooperation.
3. Donors and financial mechanisms supporting cross-border cooperation.
4. Sharing experience from cross-border cooperation in EU’s Eastern Neighborhood.


15-00 – 16-00 Final plenary session. Reports and conclusions

16-00 - 18-00 Transfer to Elblag (80 km, 2-3 hours)

November 17, Thursday

Arrival, accommodation, late dinner & Welcoming Reception (Award Ceremony) & Cultural Event

November 18, Friday

Elblag – VIP day

9:30 – 11:00 Plenary introduction session with VIPs:

    Chair: Vazil Hudak, Chairman, Institute for Stability and Development
Opening Remarks:
    Grzegorz Nowaczyk, President of Elblag Speakers:
    Jerzy Pomianowski, Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland
    Sven-Olov Carlsson, European External Action Service, Brussels

    Maxim Travnikov, Deputy Minister of Regional Development of the Russian Federation

    Pavol Klimkin, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukrain

    Andrei Popov, Deputy Foreign Minister of Moldova

    State Officials of Norway/Finland/Swede

11:00 – 11:30 Press Conference & Coffee break

11:30 – 13:00 Panel discussion 1: "Role of Local Governments, Businesses and Civil Society In Promoting Cross-border Cooperation: Learning from Experience"

    Chair: Alexey Ignatiev, Agency for Regional Economic Development, Kaliningrad, Russia
Speakers:
    Zulcas Richardas, Head of Administration, City of Klaipeda, Lithuani
    Michal Biganic, Mayor of Stara Lubovna, Slovakia
    Pia Svensgaard, County Governor of Troms, Norway
    Volodymyr Prikhodko, Deputy Head of the Regional State Administration of Transcarpathia, Ukraine

    Stanislav Vesely, Ekol Group, Czech Republic

    Zofia Kordela-Borczyk, Carpathian Foundation, Polan

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 15:00 Panel discussion 2: "СBС Common Information Space & CBC Index"

    Chair: Rune Rafaelsen, Secretary General, Norwegian Barents Secretariat
Speakers:
    Sergey Ustich, Director, Institute for Transfrontier Cooperation, Uzhgorod, Ukraine
    Malgorzata Samusjew, Deputy Director, Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Balti
    Marek Cierpial-Wolan, Head of Regional Statistics Office in Rzeszow, Polan
    Aaron Presnall, Director, Jefferson Institute, Washington DC & Belgrad

    Jozef Olenski, independent exper

15:00 – 16:00 Panel discussion 3: "ENPI, EEA Financial Mechanism, and other sources of funding for cross-border cooperation: good plans vs. reality"

    Chair: Vazil Hudak, Executive Director, Institute for Stability and Development
Speakers:
    Representatives of ENPI managing authorities
    Representative of Norway Financial Mechanis
    Other funding agencie

16:00 – 17:00 Panel discussion 4: "CBC Capacity Building in the CEI and CEE regions"

    Chair: Sandor Koles, Director, International Center for Democratic Transitio
Speakers:
    Representative of Central European Initiativ
    Sergey Putchkov, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Gdans
    Vladimir Benc, Slovak Foreign Policy Associatio
    Atle Staalesen, Norwegian Barents Secretaria

17:00 – 1730 Coffee Break & Networking

17:30 – 18:00 Plenary session. Resolution and conclusion remarks

November 18 evening & November 19 morning: Elblag - departure

The main goal of the Conference was to create an annual pan-European forum that would bring together practitioners, policy makers as well as researchers at local, regional and European levels for an interactive dialogue on cross-border cooperation and experience sharing in the European Neighborhood area. Next annual forum will be held in Poland and Kalinningrad Area.

October 26, Tuesday

Arrivals of participants in Uzhgorod, Ukraine Informal Dinner

October 27, Wednesday

10:00 – 10:30 Official opening of the Conference
10:30 – 12:00 Working Group Sessions on Key Issues related to Cross-Border Cooperation:

1. Current problems and perspectives of the cross-border cooperation in the Carpathian Region.
2. Role of SMEs and civil society institutions in promoting cross-border cooperation.
3. Donors and financial mechanisms supporting cross-border cooperation.
4. Sharing experience from cross-border cooperation in EU’s Eastern Neighborhood.


12:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 17:00 Working Group Sessions
17:00 – 17:30 Coffee break
17:30 - 18:30 Reports from the Working Groups and Discussion
19:00 Dinner

October 28, Thursday

Continuation of discussions in Working Groups & defining the next steps

October 28, Thursday

Arrivals of participants in Kosice, Slovakia
19:00 Dinner & Reception
Award Ceremony

October 29, Friday

9:00 - 10:30 Official Opening of the European Forum on Cross-Border Cooperation

Co-Chairs:
    Vazil Hudak, Chairman of the Board, Institute for Stability and Development
    Rune Rafaelsen, Secretary General, Barents Secretariat

Opening Remarks:
    František Knapík, Mayor of Košice
    Zdenko Trebula, President of the Košice Region
    Representative of the City of Uzhgorod, Ukraine

Speakers:
    Mikuláš Dzurinda Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia
    Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
    Erik Lahnstein, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway
    Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 – 11:15 “Raising the challenge bottom-up!”
Reports from the Working Groups on key issues related to cross-border cooperation that were discussed in Uzhgorod, Ukraine

11:15 – 13:30 The European Union and its Neighborhood: the Role of Cross-border Cooperation in Promoting European Cooperation and Integration

Chairman: Pavol Demeš, Director for Central and Eastern Europe, German Marshall Fund of the United States

11:30 – 12:30 Panel Discussion on the “Neighborhood Perspectives”:

Panelists:

    Viktor Fedorovich Basargin, Minister of Regional Development of the Russian Federation (tbc)
    Volodymyr Yatsuba, Minister of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine
    Victor Osipov, Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova
    Senior government representatives of Belarus and Western Balkans (tbc)

12:30 – 13:30 Panel discussion on the “EU Perspectives”:

Panelists:

    János Martonyi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungar (tbc)
    Pia Svensgaard, President of the County Government, Troms County Council
    Senior government representatives of Finland, Baltic states and Romania (tbc)

13:30 Press Conference

14:00 - 15:30 Lunch & Networking

5:30 - 17:30 Panel Discussion on key challenges to cross-border cooperation in a Wider Europe

17:30 - 18:00 Concluding remarks

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All 2nd Border Dialogues Conference Presentations Available on Slideshare
All presentations from our latest , 2nd European Forum on Cross-Border Cooperation in a Wider Europe held in Elblag, Poland on 18 October 2011 are...
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