
Central European Forum is an international venue organized by the non-profit organization
Project Forum, held in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Its main activity is concentrated around a panel discussion attended by expert speakers from all over the world, which is open to the general public. The first Central European Forum (2009) managed to gather 25 outstanding personalities including writers (as the Russian
Viktor Erofeyev, German
Ingo Schulze, Austrian
Robert Menasse, Hungarian
György Konrád), historians (as the US Professors
Timothy D. Snyder and
Marci Shore), political scientists (the French and Czech
Jacques Rupnik, Slovak Professor and Charter 77 spokesman
Miroslav Kusý, British Professor
Mary Kaldor), philosophers (the Hungarian Professor
Ágnes Heller), NGO leaders (the US NGO-leader
Wendy Luers), politicians (
Václav Havel
Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...
,
Karl zu Schwarzenberg, the Belgian EEP President
Wilfried Martens and the Slovak ex-finance minister and current EBRD vice-president
Brigita Schmögnerová) and journalists (such as the polish journalist, historian and dissident
Adam Michnik, the founder and editor-in-chief of
Gazeta Wyborcza). Four main themes were discussed by the panelists under the general slogan “What happened to democracy?”: Where does the West begin?; Open society in crisis; Totalitarian Structures - A new lease of life; and Democracy fatigue.
Stated main goal of Central European Forum 2009 was to use the anniversary of the
Velvet Revolution to engage in a serious and open-minded debate that will have a lasting, positive effect on the intellectual discourse in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Secondary goals are to (a) connect and confront intellectuals from former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe with those coming from the West; in the face of approaching democracy fatigue and booming populism in the region, (b) promote values of democracy, human rights, tolerance and solidarity; and (c) formulate innovative ideas that would help Central Europe to overcome problems related to political issues and the global economic crisis. Complete video footage is available on the website.
Central European Forum 2010 will take place in November 2010 in Bratislava. Its main theme will be "Holding on to our freedom".
References
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https://web.archive.org/web/20100910094048/http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-11-13-newsitem-en.html
External links
Central European Forum Official website
Central Europe
Politics of Europe
Culture of Europe
2009 in Slovakia
2010 in Slovakia