Summer Seminar 2007

Within the period 12-17 June 2007 on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast in “Albena” resort, Varna was held the eight annual edition of the Summer Seminar for SEE Young Public Servants “Preparation for EU Accession”. The international event took place thanks to the kind financial support of the Balkan Trust for Democracy (Belgrade), the East East: Partnership Beyond Borders Program (London), the Austrian Embassy to Bulgaria (Sofia), the Know-How Transfer Centre (Vienna), the EC Representation to Bulgaria (Sofia) and the Irish embassy to Bulgaria (Sofia).

The training gathered around 70 practitioners on EU affairs - lecturers, honorary guests, participants, etc. Out of these 70 experts, the participants counted 35 persons. All of them successfully completed the six-day long summer course and were awarded with special certificates. The following SEE / EU governmental institutions and international organization were presented during the seminar (For more details please refer to: List of participants.doc):

- Agency for Economic Analysis and Forecasting, Sofia;

- Austrian Embassy to Bulgaria, Sofia;

- Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia;

- Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland, Dublin;

- Council of Ministers, Sofia;

- Directorate for European Integration of BiH (DEI), Sarajevo;

- EC Representation to Bulgaria, Sofia;

- Embassies of Albania, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland and Germany to Bulgaria, Sofia;

- European Integration Office of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade;

- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Brussels;

- Institute of Study and Documentation on the European Community and Eastern Europe, Trieste;

- Ministry of Defence, Sofia;

- Ministry of European Integration, Tirana;

- Ministry of Finance, Zagreb;

- Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Zagreb;

- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bucharest / Podgoritsa / Sofia;

- Ministry of Health, Sofia;

- Ministry of International Economic Relations, Belgrade;

- Ministry of Interior, Zagreb;

- Ministry of Justice, Zagreb;

- Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Sofia;

- Ministry of Transport, Bucharest / Sofia;

- National Bank of Serbia, Belgrade;

- Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Chisinau;

- Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program, East-West Management Institute, Warsaw;

- PM' Department for EU Affairs, Bucharest;

- Secretariat for European Affairs, Skopje;

- Secretariat General for European Union Affairs, Ankara;

- Securities Investors Compensation Fund, Sofia;

- Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, Brussels;

- World Bank, Brussels;

- Yerevan State University, Ravensburg.

The main topics that concentrated the attention of the audience and serve as a basis for further discussions under a “Working group” format were the following (for more details please refer to: Program.doc):

The Process of EU Integration – the Pre-accession Experience of the New Member States;
The Process of EU Integration – Challenges to the Candidate Countries;
The Process of EU Integration – the Potential Candidate Countries;
Regional Cooperation in South East Europe
Business Community in SEE – Impacts of the EU Enlargement Process
The Economic Aspects of the EU Enlargement Process;
Europe of Regions
The Enlarging Union – EU Population and Migration Processes
The Future of Europe.

Feedbacks of the Summer Seminar 2007:

In various informal discussions during the six-day long seminar on the Bulgarian Black-Sea coast, the participants pointed out as a serious asset of the training, the high quality of the lecturers and the excellent organization of the event. According to the get feedbacks (via e-mails/telephone calls) the organized by EPI training seminar, was a real success. Some of the impressing letters we got immediately after the seminar could be partially summed-up as follows:

MICHAEL MOZUR (Belgium) - Thanks for the invitation to speak to your group; I very much enjoyed the trip to Albena. Let me express my appreciation for the invitation and the opportunity to speak to your group; it was an enjoyable visit and your hospitality was outstanding.

GEOFFREY MAZULLO (Poland) - It was a great honor and pleasure for me to participate in the Summer Seminar. I found it interesting, useful and inspiring.

FERNANDO PONZ (Bulgaria) - I was impressed by the quality of the presenters and the audicence.The remarks, questions and answers at the Seminar were very interesting. I greatly enjoyed this Seminar.

FRANZ KAPS (Belgium) - upon return to Munich I like to thank you and your colleagues for yet another excellent summer seminar. I was particularly pleased to note this year's active participation by European Commission colleagues, a testimony to EPI as a leading institute on EU integration matters. I look forward to a continued association with EPI.

H.E. MICHAEL HUMPHREYS (Bulgaria) - It was a pleasure and an honour to participate in the seminar and I certainly look forward to future cooperation.

JUERGEN K. BINDER (Germany) - It was a pleasure and honor to participate in this high level conference. The success is undeniable. Thank you for good preparation and implementation.

CAROLA KAPS (Belgium) - We enjoyed our stay at the Black sea as well. I think as usual the seminar was worthwile to attend and you did a great job.

SONILA MUSKAJ (Albania) - Thank you very much for everything, congratulations for the successful arrangements of the seminar. It was an interesting experience for me. I think that it is surely the best way to know people and exchange ideas and values. Compliments even for the beauties of your country.

MIHAELA ALEXE (Romania) - I would like to thanks for the opportunity to attend the summer seminar which was more than interesting and useful for me and clarified me so many things.

DIANA DRAGUTINOVIC (Serbia) - Thank you very much for the excellent organization of the Seminar.

NEVENKA ADZIEVSKA (fYR Macedonia) - Firstly, I want to thank you for the opportunity to take participation at your Summer Seminar for SEE Young Public Servants. It was very useful in accordance with my working place and obligations. I honestly hope that we will increase our cooperation in future with other useful summer seminars.

NADIA-LOREDANA STANCIULESCU (Romania) - I would like to thank you for the wonderful way you have organized the summer seminar. I had an excellent time, both during the lectures and on the beach. The information was very useful and I liked the fact I could find out the opinions and the points of view of different states involved in the accession process. For me the best part of this seminar was meeting people of different cultures and faiths, discovering we have so many things in common. I had a great time, I like the location as well.Congratulation for awell done job.

MARJAN FILKOVIĆ (Croatia) - It was really a pleasure for me to get acquainted with you as well, I wish we had much more time because everything was just great - the weather, the food, the people, the lectures and workshops and last but not least the fun during the night.

DANIELA DRAGAN (Romania) - I really belive that this Summer Seminar was useful and interesting. I also spent with the participants wonderful time and of course, we conected beautiful relationships.

ERHUN BAS (Turkey) - Let me once more cordially thank you for all you have done for the sucess of the seminar. I am personally very satisfied, both academically and socially.

ALINA SIRBU (Romania) - Thank you very much for the summer seminar. In my opinion, it was a succes. I and the members of the Romanian delegation appreciate very much the seminar and also your activity, because we hadn't been well without your implication. Thank you also to Plamena and to all the organizers. You are the best! On the other hand, we had a good occasion to meet new people from the Balkans and to understand we have many things in commun. For this reason, your initiative could improve the concord in the region or come to terms in other difficult situations. Finally, we must realize we all are part of the Europe.

DUBRAVKA SMOLIĆ (Croatia) - I hope that seminar pasted well as always. Croatian participants are very satisfied, I hope that is mutually.

JELENA JEVTOVIĆ (Serbia) - First of all, I would like to thank you for all that you have done to make my participation in the Summer Seminar possible and also very enjoyable. Thank you for all the help you have given me and I especially appreciate the information and advice you have provided. Your assistance has been very useful. Seminar was really interesting and gave me opportunity to hear so many different views on EU issues.

MARKO PETROVIC (Serbia) - Thank you again for very useful and interesting seminar.

KORALJKA DEUR (Croatia) - The seminar was very useful and I remember it with nostalgia not just because I ´ve learnt new and interesting things but also because I ´ve met very nice and interesting people. I hope I´ll stay in touch with some of them, andI really do hope that we´ll meet again on some seminar (especially one organized by EPI :).Thanks again for everything.

ALEKSANDAR PEJOVIC (Montenegro) - Thank you so much for everything. It was an excellent seminar with great opportunities for communication and networking. I do hope we shall continue our cooperation.

SLAVICA CHUBRIC (Macedonia) - I personally very much enjoyed the seminar, both the educational element of it, and the social events. The organization and the reception have also been awesome!

ANDRÁS INOTAI (Hungary) - I would like to thank you again for the kind invitation to the 8th Summer Seminar that took place last week. Hereby I would like to underline the unique work of yourself and all EPI staff members in organizing a really high-level seminar with a lot of personal engagement and unforgettable hospitality. I am sure everybody was very much impressed and the seminar could not only prove the usefulness of the series started several years ago but it will be deepening the cooperation among young public administrators working in different countries of SEE.