10TH OPEN SOCIETY FORUM

The European Neighborhood Policy, published by European Commission on 12 May 2004, is purposed to help to form democratic reform especially in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and also in Caucasus.

After the last enlargement the EU has also a set of questions to answer regarding its new neighbors, like:

• Can the EU go on enlarging forever?
• Should the debate in Europe decide where the limits of Europe lie and prevent these limits being determined by others?
• Where does Europe end?
• Is the EU’s present neighborhood policy well defined enough to meet the challenges thrown up by enlargement?
• What has the EU to offer to new neighbors?
• Should the new member states play a special role in ENP?
• How can their transition experience be best used?
• Will EU be capable of re-learning, of uniting the will and effort and take a new leap in its history?
• Governments and civil society organizations in new member states have considerable experience in promoting the transition to open societies. How to use these experiences to foster the transition process in countries of the new neighborhood?

                                                                               AGENDA

                                                                           Friday, June 10

13:00 Registration

14:00 Opening remarks
Mall Hellam, Executive Director of the Open Estonia Foundation,

14:10 Keynote speeches
Moderator: Linnar Viik, Chair of the Board of the Open Estonia Foundation, professor of IT College

European Dream, Civil Society and EU Eastern Neighbors
Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends

15:20 New Europe and New Neighbors
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Member of the European Parliament and Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

16:00 Coffee break

16:30 Discussion on the Role of Civil Society in Democratization of EU’s New Neighbors
Moderator: Andres Kasekamp, Member of the Board of the Open Estonia Foundation, Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute
Panelists:
Jeremy Rifkin - President of the Foundation on Economic Trends
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Member of the European Parliament and Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
Michael Emerson- Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for European Policy Studies
Paul Goble - former advisor to the US Government, Senior Research Fellow of EuroCollege of the University of Tartu

18:00 Summary by Nigel Haywood, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Estonia

18:15 Closing remarks by Linnar Viik

19:00 Reception dedicated to OEF 15th anniversary at restaurant Senso in Reval Hotel Olümpia