As a follow up of the discussions on "Democratic transition: fears and hopes" that were held in the framework of the Group meeting in Barcelona in June 2011, the GPF would like to organize a meeting with 50 young protagonists of the Arab revolution and 50 young European activists, mainly of Southern Mediterranean Origin. Most of them would be located in Brussels.

This two-day conference would allow participants to hold political discussions on the democratisation process and human rights through three roundtables, but also to participate in workshops on the organisation of political parties, the organisation of civil society and its relations with the politics and the functioning of European and national parliaments. These workshops as well as the networking diner would be decentralised and co-organised and co-financed with partners : the Foundation for European progressive Studies (FEPS), Solidar, the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the European Socialist youth organisation (ECOSY), and possible the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

Wednesday 19 October 2011

 Interpretation: English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic. 

A first part of the conference would consist in three roundtables, to take place in the European parliament in Brussels. Interpretation in English, French, German, Spanish and Arabic would be provided.  

15.30 - 17.00 registration of participants and visit if the European parliament

Location: European Parliament

17.00 - 18.30 First roundtable: Democratic transition: fears and hopes

Location: European Parliament

Thursday 20 October 2011

Interpretation: English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic.

9.30-11.30 Second roundtable : new partnership for new democracies -concrete steps

 This second roundtable would be chaired by Hannes Swoboda. The roundtable on "new partnership for new democracies - concrete steps" would allow S&D members that are involved in trade, development and human rights issues, to discuss the role of the EU institutions in the democratisation process, from financial aid to election watch, from capacity building to creating new grounds for cooperation and trade relations, including the issue of the ongoing negotiations between EU and Gulf Coop Council (GCC).  Officials from the European Commission would be welcome to attend this part of the conference. In this workshop, the MEPs and the participants would be invited to turn ideas into concrete steps, concrete legislation.

11.30-13.00 Third roundtable : the role of women in Democracy - chaired by Maria Badia i Cutchet

13.00-14.30 : Lunch with MEPs

Third session - 15.00 - 18.30 : Institution building, civil society organisations and political parties / 3 parallel workshops

A second part of the conference would consist in 3 parallel workshops on "capacity building in the democratisation process", which would take place in the afternoon of Thursday 20 October and would take place in partner organisations and institutions, to allow participants to know more about other organisations in Brussels and extend their European network. 

Workshop I - the organisation of political parties (with ECOSY)

Workshop II - political research, political foundations and the role of think tanks (with FEPS)

Workshop III - building bridges between the organised civil society and politics (with ETUC and Solidar)