"Serbia - Exit Europe" - Film screening and debate at the European Policy Centre in Brussels

EXIT Festival in Novi Sad

"Serbia – Exit Europe"
(52 minutes, in English)

Return to Europe Series
Winner of the 2008 Erasmus EuroMedia Award

"Will Serbia catch the EU train?"
(Panel discussion)

on Monday, 26 January 2009, at 16:30

A joint event of the European Stability Initiative (ESI) and the
European Policy Centre (EPC), supported by the Open Society Institute

The past year has seen two powerful but contradictory forces at play in Serbia. The process of losing Kosovo has rekindled nationalism and bitterness towards the international community. On the other hand, the victory in the May elections of the pro-European forces steered the country towards EU integration. The big questions over Serbia's future remain: is Serbia on track to join the EU? Is it dealing with the crimes from the Milosevic era? Or will the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU remain on hold and an application for EU membership a distant prospect?

The film Serbia – Exit Europe seeks to answer these questions. It is part of the award-winning TV documentary series Return to Europe, which former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato qualified as "documentaries all of us citizens of the European Union should have the opportunity to see".

The series is supported by ERSTE Stiftung and has been jointly produced by the German-language satellite channel 3sat, Austria's public broadcaster ORF and the TV production company pre-TV, in cooperation with the European Stability Initiative (ESI), upon whose research and analysis these films are based. The Serbia film has recently been shown at international events in Barcelona, Istanbul, Tirana and Berlin and has received very positive feedback. It will be broadcast by a number of TV stations throughout the Balkans in coming months.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion including Hedvig Morvai-Horvath, Director of the Belgrade based European Fund for the Balkans, Milica Delevic, Head of the EU integration office in Belgrade, Dejan Anastasijevic, journalist for Serbian newspaper Vreme, Gerald Knaus, ESI Chairman, and Srdjan Cvijic, External Adviser to the European Policy Centre (EPC). The Dialogue will be chaired by Rosa Balfour, EPC Senior Policy Analyst.

Please confirm your participation by completing the reply form or by e-mail to Valérie Gilles.