19-20.9.2011: Midterm conference

On Monday, 19th of September 2011, the first midterm-conference with all participants took place at the University of Graz to officially inaugurate the project "MOVE>>New (Legal) Challenges for the European Neighbourhood Policy (MOVE SEE > SC)”. Supported by the Styrian government this conference aimed at refining the methodological approaches of the participating scholars with a view to drafting a catalogue of questions to be debated during the study trip to Brussels immediately following the conference. Participants were mostly young researchers from the Black Sea / Southern Caucasus region, a number of which also participated in the LL.M. Programme "Master in South East European Law and European Integration" of the University of Graz. Participating institutions were also the new partner faculties of the State University Tbilisi (Georgia) and the State University Yerevan (Armenia). After the newly elected Dean of the Law Faculty, Prof. Joseph Marko, his colleague Prof. Tomislav Boric and a representative of the Municipal Council of Graz have spoken their greetings and welcome speeches, the meeting, under the guidance of the project director Prof. Thomas Krüßmann, turned its attention to its working agenda and to the discussants who have prepared their respective draft presentations on various legal and political topics" on the ENP by drawing on South-East European experiences. Apart from the presentations, partners were able to establish personal working relationships with each other and to discuss common research approaches, methodologies, objectives and hypotheses. The event also provided an opportunity for the group to finalize the division of responsibilities as well as to develop a framework for addressing a dissemination event which is planned for January 2012. The draft conference programme can be found here.