Russia – EU Partnership
after the Enlargement:
strategic visions and day-to-day implementation

International Academic Conference
St. Petersburg , 24–25 October 2003

Russian

The conference takes place at the moment when Russia and the European Union face two major and contradictory challenges: on the one hand, it is argued that the time has come to fill the existing partnership framework with specific content while, on the other hand, there is a widely shared feeling of disappointment with a lack of a strategic vision for the development of relations in the long-term perspective. The forthcoming completion of the EU’s most significant project in the recent years – the Eastern Enlargement – raises a number of questions ranging from the issues of advanced planning to the immediate technical ones. First of all, there is no strategic vision for future relations between Russia and the European Union: is Russia ever going to become a member, and if not, then which form of relationship should we set as our long-term goal? The movement of EU’s borders eastwards will necessitate a re-thinking of the Union’s relations not only with Russia but with its new direct neighbours – Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. Energy dialogue must be discussed against the background of the prospective creation of the Common European Economic Space. The problem of free movement of persons has already manifested itself in the heated debates around Kaliningrad, but is not limited to the situation of the Russian exclave. The aim of the conference will thus be to discuss all these and other issues, keeping in mind the need to connect strategic forward-oriented thinking with everyday management of concrete projects.

It is expected that the conference will bring together policy experts, officials and leading academics active in the field of European integration studies from the EU member states, Russia, the United States, Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME

  Friday, 24 October 2003

10.00 – 18.00

Opening of the conference

Plenary session. Russia – EU relations in a long-term perspective:

                            between partnership and membership

Plenary session. New fences and new neighbours:

                            EU proximity policy after the Enlargement

Workshop 1. Energy dialogue and Russia’s dependency on the export of raw materials

Workshop 2. Northern Dimension: a way forward

Workshop 3. Beyond Kaliningrad : freedom of movement in the Wider Europe

Saturday, 25 October 2003

10.00 – c. 14.00

Workshop 4. Russia – EU cooperation in the field of security: a new opening for functional integration?

Workshop 5. St. Petersburg after the anniversary: moving on

Plenary session. Common European Economic Space: from concept to content

Plenary session. Workshop reports, summing up

PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS

The conference will take place at the School of International Relations of the St. Petersburg State University. The conference will start at 10 a.m. on Friday, 24 October, and end early in the afternoon on Saturday, 25 October.

Visas

All the participants whose applications are accepted by the organising committee will be provided with visa invitations by 1 October. Please note that in order to prepare your visa invitation, we will need a copy of the first page of your passport (containing the photo, personal information, issue date etc.), which can be faxed to us, or scanned and sent via e‑mail. Unfortunately, communication lines do not always work perfectly, so it is very important that you receive a message from the Organizing Committee confirming that your passport copy has arrived and is readable. Before you get such a confirmation, you cannot be sure that your invitation is being processed. In case of doubt, please send your passport copy once again, or contact the Organizing Committee.

The participants are advised to submit their visa applications to the local Russian embassy/consulate at least two weeks before the departure date.

Accommodation

The Organizing Committee will assist in making hotel reservation to those participants who request such assistance filling in their registration forms. Every participants will be offered a choice of several hotels in different price range. The minimum price will be subject to availability of rooms, but we will do our best to offer you the best possible deals.

Financial provisions

There is no registration fee for the conference. The cost of meals during the conference will be covered by the Organizing Committee for the speakers as well as for all registered participants coming from outside St. Petersburg.

In addition, a small number of travel grants is available. Those will cover the price of a return ticket to St. Petersburg (economy class apex air ticket or bus/train, depending on the distance) and the cost of accommodation. Please note that the number of grants is very limited and, as a rule, they will be awarded only to speakers. In order to apply for a travel grant, participants are requested to mark the appropriate fields in their registration form.

Deadlines

Participants that would like to present a paper are requested to submit the title and a short abstract (not exceeding 200 words) no later than Monday, 16 June 2003.

For the rest of the participants, the deadline for registration is Monday, 8 September 2003. Late registration is possible; in this case, however, the Organizing Committee takes no responsibility for any arrangements concerning visa and accommodation.

REGISTRATION FORM

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

School of International Relations, Saint-Petersburg State University, entrance 8, ul. Smolnogo, 1/3, 193060, Russia.

Tel./fax: +7 (812) 276 6856

e-mail:edc@dip.pu.ru

http: //www.edc.spb.ru/conf2003/home.htmle