De Montfort University has played host to a prestigious meeting of international scholars, policy makers and analysts to discuss the way ahead for European Union enlargement.
Last year, DMU was awarded the status of a “Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence” in recognition of the university’s strengths in the areas of European public policy, politics, modern history and law.
It is one of only three universities in the UK to be awarded the title by the European Commission.
As a result DMU’s centre of excellence, known as the Centre for European Governance (CEG), held its first annual academic conference yesterday to discuss “EU Enlargement and the Western Balkans: Achievements, Challenges and the Way Ahead”.
Key speakers from across Europe joined in a discussion which assessed the progress of the enlargement of the EU in the Balkans in the wake of last month’s European parliamentary elections and recent events in Ukraine.
Organiser Dr Kenneth Morrison, a DMU expert in modern Southeast European history and the co-director of the university’s Centre for European Governance, said: “It has been quite a coup for the university to bring so many high level representatives from Europe together. It demonstrates how our status as a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence is recognised across the continent and that we have a number of leading academics here at DMU and within the CEG who are working on vital EU issues.”
Keynote speaker Dr Geert Hinrich Ahrens, from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODHIR), which advises world governments on how to develop and sustain democratic institutions, said: “There is no doubt a conference like this will make the name of DMU well known. I hope events of this type become a regular occurrence at the university and they maintain such high quality.”
Srecko Latal, of the SOS think tank in Bosnia & Herzegovina, said: “I think today’s conference was essential. Bearing in mind the recent European elections it is crucial to support and encourage a serious rethinking of Europe’s future policies and position, not just in the Balkans but across Europe. I think that any university that is capable of organising something like this with such a high level of participation speaks volumes about the value of that organisation.”
The opening speaker at the conference was Alan Charlton, a governor at DMU who is the former UK Ambassador to Brazil and prior to that was part of the British negotiating team who encouraged the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which brought the Bosnian war to an end in 1995.
Posted on Friday 6th June 2014