Events

ESPON
on the Road
 
International Conference
 
 
One Region, 
Many Stories
 
Transformation Experience and Development Perspectives of the Central and Eastern European Countries 10 Years After the 2004 EU Enlargement
   
29th of October 2014
 
Centrum Konferencyjne Zielna,
ul. Zielna 37, Warsaw
Poland

Conference Programme

9:00-9:30               Registration of  the participants
 
9:30-10.00             Welcome and scene setting

Welcome statements
 
dr Jacek Kucharczyk,The Institute of Public Affairs, Poland
 
dr hab. Agnieszka Olechnicka, EUROREG, University of Warsaw, Poland

Karla Wursterová, International Visegard Fund
 
Setting the scene with ESPON Atlas
 
dr Volker Schmidt-Seiwert, Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), Germany
 
10:00                    Key note speech

10 years of Central and Eastern European countries in the EU – successes and failures of strategic thinking
 
dr Michał Boni, Member of the European Parliament, former Minister of Administration and Digitization, Poland
 
10:30                    Thematic Panel 1:
 
How are we recovering from the crisis?

Although Central and Eastern European countries faced similar transition experience and joined the EU at the same moment, they have not been affected by the economic crisis in the same way. While some of them were considered “green islands”, resistant to the consequences of the crisis, others were faced with financial difficulties comparable to those of the Southern EU Member States. What is it, therefore, that makes the CEE countries react to the crisis so differently? What have we learned during the crisis and recovery? How did the EU membership influence the crisis and recovery in the CEE region? To what extent did the relative autonomy of domestic financial markets and strong internal market orientation of the CEE economies account for the internal protection against the negative impact of the crisis?
 
Facilitator: Rafał Woś, „Dziennik Gazeta Prawna”, Poland
 
ECR2 – Economic Crisis: Resilience of Regions in the Central and Eastern Europe
 
prof. dr hab. Iwona Sagan, University of Gdańsk, Poland
 
Panel discussion
 
Vladimír Bartovic, director of EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy in Czech Republic and a former director of Strategic Planning and Analysis in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic

Sándor Gallai, the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT), Hungary

prof. dr hab. Grzegorz Gorzelak, EUROREG, University of Warsaw, Poland

Grzegorz Gromadzki, The Institute of Public Affairs, Poland

 
12:00                    Networking with coffee and tea
 
12:30                    Thematic Panel 2:
 
How do we cooperate in the cross-border areas?
 
Accession to the EU was a major challenge for the CEE countries. Once under-invested buffer zones, the cross-border areas in the CEE region were offered an unprecedented opportunity for development, following the accession to the Schengen area. Located in the peripheral areas of the Central and Eastern Europe, itself a peripheral macro-region of the EU, the cross-border areas are faced with both challenges and opportunities concerned with the establishment of the new development models. What are, therefore, the patterns of integration and cooperation in the CEE cross-border areas? Has abolition of formal borders left “mental boundaries" as barriers to cooperation? Are we already dealing with the “regions without borders ”in the cross-border areas of the CEE? What are the characteristic features of the CEE cross-border areas located within the European Union and those neighbouring with the EU CEE Member States?
 
Facilitator: Agnieszka Lichnerowicz, Radio TOK FM, Poland (TBC)
 
Cross-border cooperation through Polish-German experience
 
dr Katja Sarmiento-Mirwaldt, Brunel University London, Germany
 
Panel discussion
 
dr Márton Péti, Office for National Economic Planning, Hungary
 
dr Agnieszka Łada, The Institute of Public Affairs, Poland
 
Tomaž Miklavčič, The Ministry of Infrastructure and Spatial Planning, Slovenia
 
Łukasz Wenerski, The Institute of Public Affairs, Poland
 
14:00                    Lunch
 
15:00                    Thematic Panel 3:
 
What are our perspectives for the future?
 
Central and Eastern Europe is without doubt one of the fastest growing regions in the EU. With significant increases in their GDPs, the CEE countries are among the fastest catching-up EU economies. On the other hand, the problem of the so called “broken regions” in the CEE, characterized by the dynamically developing core economic zones, usually surrounding the capital cities, and the peripheral areas lagging behind, is becoming increasingly visible. Apart from the challenges related to the economic development, the CEE countries are often confronted with the issues in the fields of demography, social inclusion, migration, knowledge-based economy and global competitiveness. What are the visions and scenarios for development in the Central and Eastern Europe? Is it still reasonable to treat the CEE area as a single macro-region?
 
Facilitator: Edwin Bendyk, “Polityka”, Poland
 
Territorial Scenarios and Visions for Central Europe
 
prof. dr hab. Jacek Szlachta, Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
 
Panel discussion
 
prof. Mark Boyle, National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis, NUI Maynooth, Ireland (TBC)
 
Grażyna Cieślak, Warsaw City Council, Poland

Andrzej Klesyk, President of the Executive Board in PZU Group, Member of the Programme Board of the Institute of Public Affairs, Poland
  
dr hab. Agnieszka Olechnicka, EUROREG, University of Warsaw, Poland

Wojciech Przybylski, Visegrad Insight, Res Publica Nowa, Poland
 
Ádám Radvánszki, Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), Germany
 
Tomáš Strážay, Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Slovakia

16:30                      End of conference
 

The media partner of the conference is the opinion magazin Visegrad Insight.