60 high school students aged 17 from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia and Slowakia will gather and discuss how they see each other, how they perceive our world and what they expect of the future.
Participants may join the online forum…
One of the main challenges for Europe is to react to the high speed changes in the balances of the world. The rise of the emerging countries, before all the BRIC states, spreads a new light on the relations to Russia who certainly is the natural strategic partner Europe has to focus on – besides its traditional transatlantical orientation.
For both partners this can only bring a win-win-situation.
Russia, though situated on two continents, is and always has been a European power – 85 % of its population live in the European part of the federation, the important cities are situated there as well as the economic centers. Russia is a rich country in terms of natural resources, oil and gas occurences, and even more so in its cultural and scientific tradition, but there are many weaknesses in the economical structures, a fact that is obvious in international comparitative studies by the OECD and the World Economic Forum.
There is an urgent need for modernization, reforms and the attraction of international investment.
The European Union and the Russian Federation have agreed upon a Partnership for Modernization, a project that concentrates on joint efforts to modernize the structures of Russian economy and society.
DER – Dialog – Europe – Russia wants to contribute to this partnership by furnishing expertise and tranfer of knowledge. Internationally renowned experts of both sides are working with us in this project.
On top of these efforts DER wants to help to establish a close contact of the European and the Russian Civil Societies. This is fundamental to create a situation of mutual trust. Therefore, DER does not limit itself to the economical, political or scientific communities, but focuses intensely on establishing contact between young people of high school and university age.