Fundacja im. Stefana Batorego

Events

Warsaw, September 16-17th 2008

Meeting of partner organisations working on monitoring of the EU Visa Policy project

Representatives of partner organizations from Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine met in Warsaw to discuss main problems faced by citizens of Eastern European countries when applying for the EU visa. After the disscussion, all details concerning monitoring of the European Union’s consulates in Chisinau, Kiev, Minsk and Moscow, that is planned for autumn 2008 were settled. Preliminary results of the research will be available in December 2008.

Helsinki, September 15th 2008

Seminar Gateways to Europe – Assessing EU’s External Borders

In cooperation with the Finish Institute of International Affairs, we organized a seminar during which our final report on the EU’s border crossing points and the report on Finish border crossing points were presented. The seminar discussion involved opinions from several experts in that matter: Ilkka Laitinen, Executive Director of Frontex, Henrik Lax, Member of the European Parliament, Anne Holmlund, Minister of Interior of Finland, Vadim Kononenko and Arkady Moshes from the Finish Institute of International Affairs as well as Grzegorz Gromadzki from the Batory Foundation. Around 60 people attended the meeting. Ending discussion focused on challenges that the EU has to face with regard to the border control system as well as visa policy.

Kyiv, June 24th 2008

What's happening on the border of the European Union?

In cooperation with the Center for Peace, Conversion and Foreign Policy of Ukraine and the International Renaissance Foundation we organized a seminar for representatives of Ukrainian administration, academics, experts and representatives of Ukrainian and international institutions dealing with cross border movement and migrations (ca 40 people). During the meeting the results of the monitoring of the external EU land border were presented with the special attention paid to the situation on the border crossing points between EU and Ukraine. The report triggered discussion on the strategy of development of Ukrainian border crossing points, joint controls on the border crossing points between EU and Ukraine and problems of cooperation of Ukrainian and EU authorities with regard to cross border movement.

Brussels, June 13th 2008

What's happening on the border of the European Union? Reporting from the EU external land checkpoints

During the seminar organized by the Foundation in cooperation with the Open Society Institute Brussels and the Centre for Eastern Policy Studies, Marta Kindler from the Center of Migration Research, University of Warsaw, and Juraj Buzalka from the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association presented the report Gateways to Europe. Checkpoints on the EU External Land Border [PDF 1661 KB]. The meeting attended by ca 40 representatives of EU institutions, National Representations to the EU, media, Brussels-based think-tanks and international NGOs, was chaired by Sergio Carrera, Research Fellow and Head of the JHA Unit, Center for Eastern Policy Studies. The presentation was followed by a discussion on the present and future Union’s Policy towards external EU borders.

Warsaw, May 9th 2008

Conference What's happening on the border of the European Union?

During the conference attended by 120 people, Ewa Matejko and Marta Kindler from the Centre of Migration Research, Warsaw University, presented the results of monitoring of the border crossing points situated on the European Union external land borders. The monitoring carried out in 2007 in 7 countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. During the monitoring 19 border crossing points on the borders with EU neighbours: Belarus, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine were checked.

At the conference we presented a report Gateways to Europe. Checkpoints on the EU External Land Border [PDF 1661 KB].The presentation was followed by a discussion on quality of services provided at the EU border crossing points. The opening remarks were given by Leszek Elas, the Chief Commander of the Polish Border Guards and Jacek Kapica, Director General of Polish Customs.

January 2008

Petition How to avoid an iron curtain between the EU and Belarus

Former presidents: Václav Havel, Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Lech Wałęsa signed the petition How to avoid an iron curtain between the EU and Belarus? in which they recommend to lower the price of visas for Belarusian citizens to €35. Only such action can help fulfill the main goal of the EU policy towards Belarus, which is to facilitate and intensify people-to-people contacts and further democratise this country – declare the politicians in the paper prepared together with the Stefan Batory Foundation and the Czech International Affairs Association. Full text of the petition [PDF 79 Kb].