AS TWO SUPRANATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, EU AND NATO, SHARE THE SAME VALUES

The fifth public debate within the project "Helsinki Charter: Promoting Serbia's Europeanization" realized with the assistance of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights

Pancevo, December 1, 2010

The fifth public promotion of the Helsinki Charter magazine was held in the Pancevo City Hall. The local non-governmental organization, Civil Action, helped the Helsinki Committee to organize this successful and vibrant meeting between contributors for the magazine and its present and potential readers.

Having introduced the magazine's editorial policy guided by two determinants, facing the past and promotion of European values, Seska Stanojlovic, editor-in-chief, gave the floor to authors.

Economist Vladimir Gligorov said, among other things, that in present socioeconomic circumstances Serbia practically had no other alternative but membership of the European Union. Recognizing the fact that admission of all the countries in the region was unquestionable in EU enlargement policy, Gligorov detailed the "the Serbia map." According to him, it would be realistic to expect Serbia's full-fledged membership of EU in six to eight years, actually somewhere by 2020.

Zoran Dragisic, security expert and university professor, broached manipulation, half-truths and false information the influential representatives of Serbia's conservative bloc were resorting to so as to fuel public animosity for NATO. He reminded that all post-communist countries in Europe had joined NATO before EU, and emphasized that the two supranational organizations shared the same values.

Journalist Teofil Pancic spoke about "tangible" advantages of EU membership by presenting illustrative examples. Apart from being able to travel from Ljubljana to Lisbon through "invisible borders," every Slovenian can, say, go to live and work in Germany, France or Spain under the same conditions as citizens of these countries, said Pancic.

Bombarding keynote speakers with questions people in the audience demonstrated their interest in a number of topics addressed. They posed questions such as "Is Serbia 'mature' enough for such manifestations as the Pride Parade?" "What is the correlation between the level of democratization of a country and its economic development?," "Would the informal centers of power ever renounce their influence in the name of institutional order, which is a crucial measure of democracy?," etc. Such dynamic exchange of views lasted for almost two hours.

At the end the editor-in-chief of the Helsinki Charter was interviewed by a reporter for the local TV station. A story about the launch was posted at the website of the Pancevo City Hall.