Austrian Davos in Kyiv for the first time

27 young people from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine participated in the School.

Every year since 1945 a European Forum Alpbach www.alpbach.org takes place in Alpbach, a picturesque town of Tyrol (Austria). Leading representatives of science, culture, politics and business gather at the forum united by a common idea – preservation of European culture. For two weeks Alpbach turns into a counterpart of Davos, a platform for exchanging ideas and experience of the EU experts. Since 1992, Summer School on European Integration has been held within the Forum. The Summer School is conducted in 10 countries, including Ukraine since 2010.

The Summer School aims at introducing students to the fundamentals of the EU functioning, transferring skills and experience for analysis of social, economic and legal issues of the European integration.

The School in Kyiv offered a comprehensive course in law and policies of the European Community and European Union. The Summer School is supposed to promote students’ understanding of fundamentals and principles of the EU. It provides students with opportunity to get basic skills for analysis of social, economic and legal issues of the EU integration, as well as introduces students to culture and practices of live debates on various problems of the European Integration in the English language. Students get a unique opportunity to immerse into a multicultural environment, get knowledge from the international team of lecturers, coming from Austria, Czech Republic and Ukraine, represented by prominent scholars, politicians and civil servants. Lectures and final examination are conducted in English.

On the occasion of the Summer School launch in Ukraine, the organizing committee of initiative group Alpbach-Kyiv held ceremonial events in the presence of outstanding politicians, diplomats and scholars from Ukraine, Austria and the Netherlands.

Also a briefing on “Prospects of European Integration of Ukraine: on the Verge of New Agreement” was held on July 5. The briefing was attended by:

• Dr. Erhard Busek, President of the European Forum Alpbach, former Vice-Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (1991-1995), Chairman of the Austrian Christian-Conservative People’s Party (OVP) (1991-1995), Minister of Education, Minister of Science and Research of the Austrian Republic (1989 – 1995);
• Dr. Markus Wuketich, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to Ukraine and Moldova;
• Valeriy Chaly, Deputy Director of Razumkov Center, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (2009-2010).
• Dmytro Shulga, senior manager of the European Program of the International Renaissance Foundation.

They made the following presentations:

• Erhard Busek – Importance of Ukraine for the EU. European Forum Alpbach
• Valeriy Chaly – Ukraine – a Regional Leader in the Context of the Eastern Partnership
• Markus Wuketich – Cooperation of Austria and Ukraine, Summer School on European Integration
• Dmytro Shulga – The Role of the Civil Society in the European Integration of Ukraine