Center for Europe University of Warsaw and Faculty of Law University “St. Kliment Ohridski” – Bitola are the main organizers of international workshops and conference entitled “Poland and the Balkans in Europe – Successes and Challenges”, which will take place in Bitola on 1-2 July this year (Conference program) and online.
These events are carried out under the research grant entitled “Balkan Ambitions and Polish Inspirations”, which is a public task financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland within the grant competition “Public Diplomacy 2022”.
The organizers of the conference and workshop set themselves two tasks to be carried out. The first is to present Polish achievements and successes resulting from the transformation period and to define the challenges facing Poland. The second task is to present the most important challenges facing the Balkan states, and to identify their needs resulting from various experiences. The result of the conference should be mutual knowledge and understanding of the specificity of individual countries participating in the project. The aim of the Polish participants is to provide the Balkan partners with experiences resulting from the political, economic, legal, social and cultural transformation.
The organizers hope that the forms of cooperation provided for in the grant will allow for direct contact and mutual influence of various opinion-forming circles from Poland and the Western Balkans. The conference and workshops should contribute to deepening mutual contacts and establishing new ones, which will certainly contribute to building lasting, long-term cooperation and creating a favorable image of Poland in the academic, journalistic and non-governmental environment in the Balkan countries.
The project is implemented in cooperation with Balkan scientific institutions and non-governmental organizations: University of “Ss. Cyril and Methodius ”Skopje, University of Montenegro, University of Niś (Serbia), Institute for Research and European Studies (North Macedonia). The main Polish partners in the project are: Center for International Relations, University of Gdańsk, University of Economics in Katowice,Polish Association for Research of the European Community (PECSA) and the Institute of Central Europe in Lublin.
