Lviv hosted the international conference “Living Together in an Open European Society: View from Ukraine.”
On December 2, Lviv hosted the international conference “Living Together in an Open European Society: View from Ukraine.” The event was organized by the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, the Lviv City Council, the NGO “Institute of Political Technologies” and the European Information Center in Lviv with the support of the European Program of the International Renaissance Foundation and the Polish Institute in Kyiv.
The more than 80 participants of the conference, including members of parliament, representatives of international institutions and diplomatic missions, scholars, sociologists, experts and members of the clergy, discussed the report of the Group of Eminent Persons of the Council of Europe “Living together. Combining diversity and freedom in 21st century Europe.”
The authors of the report argue that Europe’s future will depend on whether peaceful coexistence can be achieved between immigrants and members of their host society. The experts warned against so-called “parallel societies” due to the constant threat of isolation. On the other hand, life “among” doesn’t mean life “together” and so immigrants should be encouraged to adopt European values. In the authors’ opinion, Europeans should also take responsibility for all of society, regardless of how long somehow has lived in the EU.
Zoltan Salai, Head of Political, Press and Information Section at the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, outlined the current state of EU-Ukraine relations. He touched on the issue of an Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. As he said, the document has two components: economic and political. And while nearly all differences in the economic component have been agreed, in the political component the EU still has many questions to Ukraine, particularly in the area of rule of law and democracy. Zoltan Salai stressed that this is an integral agreement that can’t be concluded in sections. “It’s not a menu in a restaurant, where you can select only what you like,” he said.
Ella Libanova, Director of the Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, spoke about migration processes in Ukraine and presented statistics on emigration from and immigration to Ukraine. According to these figures, Ukraine is one of the largest donors, behind only Mexico, India, Russia and China in terms of number of emigrants. According to UN statistics, there are 5.3 million immigrants living in Ukraine, making up 11.3% of the population. This figure puts Ukraine in 11th place worldwide. These processes, in the opinion of Ella Libanova, will continue to develop, making it important to understand whether Ukrainian society is ready for this: whether the population is tolerant, whether the government is aware of the problem, and whether there is an adequate migration policy.
In August 2010, the Council of Europe’s Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland, asked an independent “Group of Eminent Persons” to prepare a report on the challenges arising from the resurgence of intolerance and discrimination in Europe within the framework of the Europe-wide project “Living Together in 21st-Century Europe.” The Group is composed of nine high-ranking members and is headed by former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
The European Information Center in Lviv
(+38 032) 235 69 64
lviv_cei@ukr.net
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The Goal of the European Program is to promote Ukraine’s European integration by providing financial and expert support to relevant civil society initiatives.
