goEast-Panel Discussion: The Future of the Balkans 10 Years After Dayton

Nearly fifteen years have passed since Yugoslavia began to fall apart. Ten years since the massacre of Srebrenica, where more than 7,500 civilians died. Also ten years ago was the Dayton Peace Accord for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many experts on the Western Balkans are pleading for a future EU-membership for the countries of the crisis-torn region.

Considering this and the postponed application-talks with Croatia, goEast’s panel discussion “The European Union is the Future of the Balkans – Reality or Illusion?” certainly comes at the right time. As part of the festival for Central and Eastern European film, renowned experts on the region will discuss the future outlook for the countries of the Western Balkans.

The conflict-laden region also plays a big ongoing part in goEast’s film program. The discussion on April 7 2005 at 7pm in the Bellevue-Saal, Wilhelmstraße 32, Wiesbaden is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Hessian State Office for Political Education.

An introduction to the subject will be given by historian and political scientist Marie-Janine Calic (Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich). Ms. Calic was political advisor to the special coordinator for the stability-pact for Southeastern Europe in Brussels and to the special UN-envoy to the former Yugoslavia. She has written expert opinions for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in Den Haag and published many articles on the Balkans Conflict.

Leo Kreuz is Head of the division for Southeastern Europe at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in Bonn and responsible for the stability-pact for Southeastern Europe

The publisher and translator Nenad Popovic supports and publishes many authors from the “post-Yugoslavian” Generation. He was awarded the Leipzig Book Award (1999), the Bruno Kreisky-Award for Political Books (1999) and the German P.E.N. centre’s Hermann-Kesten-medal. In 2000 he became an honorary citizen of Sarajevo.

Author and newspaper-correspondent Beqë Cufaj was born in Kosovo. He now works as the German correspondent for the Kosovo-based daily-newspaper Koha and lives in Stuttgart. Cufaj has accompanied the war in Kosovo as a journalist and author. In 2000, a collection of his works was published in German as „Kosova – Rückkehr in ein verwüstetes Land“ (“Kosovo – Return to a Devastated Country”). In 2001, Cufaj was awarded the Bruno Kreisky-Award for Political Books.

The panel-discussion will be hosted by Michael Martens. He’s been the correspondent for Southeastern Europe for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Belgrade since June 2002.

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