ESI in Barcelona: At the Gates of Europe
20 February 2009
At the Gates of Europe
Several countries, such as the Western Balkan States, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey and Morocco are situated at the gates of the EU. However, their aspirations for integration are confronted with a number of obstacles.
ESI's Gerald Knaus spoke on issues faced by Turkey in its accession process on a conference organised by the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB). The conference aimed to inquire more deeply into the debate on Europe, analysing the specific set of problems faced by each of countries at the gates of Europe, while also reflecting on the limits of Europe and "Europeanness" itself.
Other participants included Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia, Remzi Lani, Albanian political analyst, director of the Albanian media Institute, Carlos Taibo, lecturer in Political Science at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Gia Tarkhan-Mouravi, journalist from Georgia and co-director of the Tbilisi Institute for Policy Studies, Carmen Claudín, deputy director of the CIDOB Foundation, Cengiz Çandar, Turkish journalist and political analyst, adviser to the former president Turgut Ozal, and Paul Scheffer, journalist and professor of Urban Sociology at the University of Amsterdam.
Gerald Knaus on the panel and asking a question to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Photo: Miquel Taverna Homs
Mikheil Saakashvili. Photo: Miquel Taverna Homs