Copyright Photo 1: WKÖ, Photo 2: Vladimir Vano

On 5 December 2024, not only did the IDM celebrate its 71st birthday and hold its annual conference, but the 15th edition of the Grow East Congress also took place at the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKÖ) in Vienna. IDM Director Sebastian Schäffer was invited to the first panel What is CEE’s current position and what is the outlook for the region? 

The discussion focused on developments in CEE from a historic, economic, political and societal perspective. The other panelists were Philipp Ther, Professor of Central European History at the University of Vienna; Gunter Deuber, Chief Economist/Head of Research and Managing Director at Raiffeisen Research, Vienna; and Martin Ehl, Chief Foreign Policy Analyst and Columnist at Hospodářské noviny, Prague. 

The IDM Director stressed the need for more ambitious reforms as well as enlargement efforts in the EU. On average, the negotiations from start to finish took around three and a half years, while the longest successful negotiation lasted 77 months with Portugal. As of December 2024, Brussels has already been negotiating with Montenegro for 150 months – more than twice as long – and there is no end in sight.  

However, the arduous path from the Treaty of Nice to Lisbon took 5.5 years, including two negative referendums in both France and the Netherlands on the Treaty for a Constitution for Europe and one negative referendum in Ireland on Lisbon. Deepening and widening is therefore possible within a single term of the European Commission – if bravery replaces the fear of failure. Crises can be averted by having a plan B ahead of time. There is no shortcut to enlargement, but the process can speed up significantly if the EU member states forego the excessive use of veto, of which there are 75 possibilities prior to membership. 

In any case, time is running out. National governments, but also institutions in Brussels, need to deliver, otherwise populists will succeed in destroying the achievements of the past seven decades, as well as the entire EU from within. This also means starting to think about the next multiannual financial framework, where agricultural subsidies are still among the biggest items in the budget. The region of CEE, in particular, still has capabilities for common defence spending. Furthermore, Schäffer strongly encouraged the consideration of a new Next Generation EU Programme to rebuild Ukraine.  

The session was moderated by Desislava Dikova, Professor of International Business, WU Vienna. More information on the Grow East Congress and the organisers can be found here.

You might be interested in Policy Paper „Embracing the Momentum: Why the Next Comission Should Prioritise EU Enlargement and Reform“

Photo credit: Carl Philipp Hoffmann (UWK)

Erste Jahreskonferenz vom UWK-IDM-Projekt „European Dis/Orders“ in Triest

Am 22. November 2024 fand in Triest die erste Jahreskonferenz des gemeinsamen Projekts „European Dis/Orders“ der Universität für Weiterbildung Krems (UWK) und des Instituts für den Donauraum und Mitteleuropa (IDM) statt, in Kooperation mit der Universität Triest.

Das Projekt untersucht theoretisch sowie anhand konkreter Fallbeispiele Ordnungskonzepte und Krisennarrative. Dabei wird die Hypothese verfolgt, Demokratie als dynamischen Prozess zu definieren und Populismus als Gefahr durch das Versprechen von „Ordnung“ kritisch zu beleuchten. In den Fallbeispielen geht es um konkrete Krisenerscheinungen und Krisendiskurse, vor allem aus der ostmittel- und südosteuropäischen Region.

Die erste Jahreskonferenz widmete sich dem Thema „Grenzen“ aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive. Das Konzept der Konferenz wurde von Péter Techet entwickelt. Im Fokus stand die Frage, wie „Grenzen“ in politischen Diskursen wahrgenommen und erzeugt werden und welche Auswirkungen sie auf Migration und Identitäten haben.

Die Teilnehmenden aus Großbritannien, Italien, Österreich und Slowenien behandelten in ihren Vorträgen unter anderem die Migration im Kontext der Klimakrise, historische Identitätskonstruktionen jenseits von „nationalen“ Grenzen im oberadriatischen Raum (insbesondere in Bezug auf Sozialpolitik) sowie populistische Diskurse über Migration, dargestellt durch Fallbeispiele aus Ungarn, Serbien und Italien.

In den Diskussionen wurde versucht, Grenzen aus der Perspektive unterschiedlicher Disziplinen als gesellschaftliches Konstrukt und politisches Narrativ zu analysieren und gleichzeitig anhand konkreter Fallbeispiele aus Geschichte und Gegenwart zu dekonstruieren.

Programm:

12:00 – 12:10: Welcome (University of Trieste / University of Continuing Education Krems / Institute for Danube Region and Central Europe)

1. Panel: “Border” as Contradiction (Debates on Climate Change and Migration)

12:10 – 12:30: Sarah Haider-Nash (University for Continuing Education Krems): The Border and the Other in European discourses on climate and migration

12:30 – 12:50: Giovanni Bettini (Lancaster University): Towards climate nomadism? Displacement and escape in the face of planetary crises

12:50 – 13:10: Simona Capisani (Durham University): Challenge or Opportunity? Climate Migration, The International Order & a Right to a Livable Space

2. Panel: “Border” as Identity (Identity Conflicts in the Upper Adriatic Region)

14:30 – 14:50: Laura Downs (European University Institute): The association Assistenza all’Italia Redenta and the social management of teachers’ labor in Italy’s northeastern borderlands, 1919-1940

14:50 – 15:10: Daša Ličen (Slovenian Academy of Sciences): Animal Welfare and Social Boundaries in late Habsburg Trieste

15:10 – 15:30: Gabriele Mastrolillo (University of Trieste): The debate over the Upper Adriatic Border between the Italian and Yugoslav Communist Parties during the Partisan War

15:30 – 15:50 Francesco Toncich (University of Ljubljana): Making New Borders, Legal Belonging and Mobility through Public Health in the post-Habsburg Alps-Adria Macro-Region: A Transnational Perspective (1918-1924)

3. Panel: “Border” as Crisis (Exclusionary Discourses and Networks of Populism)

16:20 – 16:40 Roberta Altin (University of Trieste): Migrations in the Trieste Borderland: ‚Border‘ to order or to otherness?

16:40 – 17:00: Elisabeth Donat (University of Continuing Education Krems): Cross-border cooperation as key resource during crisis and beyond: Focus groups with regional MPs in four European countries

17:00 – 17:20: Melanie Jaindl (Independent Researcher, Vienna): Visual Securitization of Borders and Others: An Intersectional Approach to the Fence in Subotica/Röszke

17:20 – 17:40: Mattia Zulianello (University of Trieste): Capire il populismo tra miti e realtà (in Italian)

Our colleague, Malwina Talik, has contributed an analysis  „Unofficial Visit of Viktor Orbán in Vienna“ for the Institute of Central Europe (IES) in Lublin, Poland.

Read the full analysis (in Polish) here.