Euro-BRICS Young Leaders Summit
Helsinki, 8-9 June, 2015
Democracy – Peace – Mobility – Modernity – Sustainability– Innovation - Multicultures
Young leaders and citizensfrom Europe and the BRICSshape 21st
centurymultipolar world
Because the youth have apriority on the future…
Organised by the Euro-BRICS Youth Platformwith the support of LEAP
and in partnershipwith
AEGEE-Europe, FEFAP, FudanUniversity (CN), Global ShapersCommunity (ES), StellenboschUniversity (ZA),
Centre for Policy Research (IN), South AfricanYouth for InternationalDiplomacy (ZA), National Committee on
BRICS Research (RU), KCT Business School (IN)
CONCEPT
The year 2014 has been marked by a major disruption in Euro-Russia relations whichcanbeunderstood as the
first conflict of the multipolar world. Indeed the multipolarity of the XXIstcentury world isneither good or bad,
itisafactwhichpolicy-makers must addresswithoptimism and rationality in order to organise it.
So thattoday’smultipolar world doesn’tlooklike Europe in the 1930s, this major change in the global
architecture requires a major reform of the international institutions in charge of ensuringpeace and
sharedprosperity on a global scale. To this date, the previoussystem of global governancehasn’t been able to
transformsignificantly and integrate the new reality, compelling a group of countries representative of the new
global arhitecture, the BRICS, to startbuildtheirown system of trans-continental coordination.
As long as the BRICS effort to create the conditions for a peaceful and prosperousmultipolar world
remainsnubbed by the West, this effort willresult in a conflictual bipolarisation of the world.
Withinthis club of Western countries, Europe appears as the mostlikely to understand the need to
contributepositively tothisprocess of global reorganisation. Because Europe has the experience of
beingresponsible for the twomostlethalwars in global history, becauseitinvented a promissing model of
regionalintegration, becausethis model isrelevent in the invention of a coordinatedmultipolar world, the EuroBRICS rapprochement canplay a positive role in accelerating the process of global
reorganisationsomuchneeded.
GiventhatthisXXIstcentury world belongs first and foremost to the youngergenerationsof global citizens and
leaders and thatthe world needs the optimism and open-mindedness of the owners of the future, Euro-BRICS
youth have decided to initiate an open platform of exchange and action. And in order to signal clearlytheir
intention to be a force of hope and reorganisation, theyare holding this first Euro-BRICS Young Leaders
Summitin Helsinki.
PROGRAMME
Saturday, June 6, 2015 (optional programme)
Afternoon
Samba carnival at the centre square in Helsinki
Sunday, June 7, 2015
10.00-13.00
Ice-breaker / team-building session
14.00-16.00
City tour (optional)
Evening
Welcomeevening
Monday, June 8, 2015 – Euro-BRICS Young Leaders Summit
8.30-10.30
Openingceremony
Welcomeword, by NikolaiKazantsev, coordinator of the event
Presentation of the organisingcommittee
Presentation of the advisoryboard
Introductoryremarks, by Marie-Hélène Caillol, LEAP
Allocution by Mr Bruno Maçaes, Secretary of State for Europeanaffairs,
Lisbon (PT)
11.00-17.00
Simultaneous workshops - Euro-BRICS addressingXXIstcentury global
challenges
Workshop 1 -Democracy: Inventing a democraticallyanchored system of
global governance / Ensuringyouth/citizen participationin tomorrow’s global
system of governance at everylevel / Legitimacy and regulation
. ConflictingRegions – HarmoniousCities: A Euro-BRICS co-operation on the
Level of Local Goverment, by Konstantinos Dekavallas,youngestelectedLocal
Councillor, City of Athens (GR)
Workshop 2 -Peace: Creating the conditions for a peacefulcooperation
between the big components of the multipolar world – Win-winrationale at
the heart of tomorrow’s global system/ Case studies (Ukraine, the Middle
East)
. Thomas Letzke,AEGEE-Köln
Workshop 3 – Mobility: From a global world of goods to a global world of
people /
Inventing
non-disruptive
employmentmobility
(enhacingcontructivemobility,
managing
disruptive
mobility)
/
Studentmobility and multicultural global citizenship / Visas : a thing of the
past ?
. Ekaterina Shalaeva, Luxembourg
Workshop 4 – Modernity : Creating a modern global institutional system
(light, open, adaptable, internet-based, project-based) / Adding the level of
regionalintegrations to the global architecture / Reinventing nation states’
added value and role in this architecture
Workshop 5 – Sustainability : Acknowledging the need to combine economy
and sustainability / Foundinggrowth on environmental challenges / Feeding 7
billion people withoutsurrenderingto multinational food lobbies / Towards a
global distribution of prosperity
Workshop 6 – Innovation : Limitsreached by fragmentedcompetitive national
research / Multiculturality,an instrument of innovation in science and
technology / Reaching the next phase of humandevelopment by
combiningtogether
a
multipolarworld’sstrengths
(financial
and
humanresources) / Towardssupra-national teams of research, supranational
coordinatingentities, supranational supervizing bodies…
. Michael Kahn, Professor Extraordinaire, StellenboschUniversity / Director,
Research and Innovation Associates, Cape Town (ZA)
. TeonaGurguenidze
.VenlaVirkamäki, Policy Officer for Trade & Innovation, Embassy of the
Netherlands in Helsinki (NL)
Workshop 7 – Multicultures : Bridging cultural gaps in a multipolar world
thourhg culture and sports / Conceiving Euro-BRICS sports contests and
cultural events / Inventing « coopetitive » rules in sports and contests :
ackowledging the might of « win-win » vs « crushing the others » logics
14.00-18.00
« Senior » session (5th Euro-BRICS seminar) -Regionalintegrations as a
model for XXIstcenturymultipolar global governance :
The 5th Euro-BRICS seminarwilladdress issue of the integration of supranational (EU, AU, Eurasia, Mercosur…) and mega-national (China, India…)
entities to the global architecture, as well as itsfeasibility and the role states
must play in this finalisation of the process of regionalintegration and
establishing of a multipolar global governanceadapted to the characteristics
of the XXIstcentury
(full programme availablehereafter)
(each workshop willresult in a set of recommendationsand 1
concreteprojectproposal to bepresented in the nextday’splenary session)
Evening
1st Euro-BRICS Night
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
9.00-12.30
Presentation of workshops’ conclusions (plenary) – Each workshop
willpresentits conclusions along the following format :
Introduction by a senior participant (5 mns)
Presentation of youth workshop conclusions and concreteprojectproposal(s)
(10 mns)
Debate (10 mns)
9.00 – 9.15
Introduction
9.15-9.40
Workshop 1 – Democracy
9.40-10.05
Workshop 2 – Peace
10.05-10.30
Workshop 3 – Mobility
10.30-11.00
Break
11.00-11-25
Workshop 4 – Modernity
11.25-11.50
Workshop 5 – Sustainability
11.50-12.15
Workshop 6 - Innovation
12.15-12.40
Workshop 7 – Multicultures
12.40-14.00
Lunch
14.00-14.30
Senior workshop – Regionalintegrations and global governance
14.30-17.00
Closing session:
Symbolicevent – Signing of Euro-BRICS Memorandum of Understanding
Closingkeynote speeches
. Bruno Maçaes, Secretary of State for EuropeanAffairs, Lisbon (PT)
. Marie-Hélène Caillol, LEAP
. Organizingcommittee
. NikolayKazantsev, coordinator
Night
Second Euro-BRICS Night (bringspecialitiesfromyour country !!!)
Wednesday, June 10 to Saturday, June 13, 2015 : Ferry trip to Saint Petersburg (optional
programme)
Wednesday 10: evening: departure + night on the ferry
Thursday 11: Meetings aboard + arrival + night inSt.Petersburg,
Friday12: Cultural program + meetings with NGOs + night on the ferry
Saturday: Return trip + meetings aboard + arrival in the evening
(This programme is optional, please register to [email protected]
– Total fare : 250 euros)
Sunday, June 14, 2015 (optional programme)
Departures of last delegates and participants
5th Euro-BRICS seminar - PROGRAMME
Moderation: Veronique Swinkels
Monday, June 8, 2015
5th Euro-BRICS seminar
14.00-14.30
Welcomeword, by Caroline Lubbers, Euro-BRICS Project Manager, LEAP (NL)
Introduction, by Marie-Hélène Caillol, President of LEAP (FR)
Introduction, by Professor GeorgyToloraya, Chair, RegionalProjectsDepartment, "Russkiy Mir"
Foundation / ExecutiveDirector, BRICS National ResearchComitee, Moscow (RU)
Round-table
14.30-15.30
Finalizingregionalintegrationprocessesintofully-fleshedpoliticalentities
Regionalintegrationprocesses have mostly been concerned about economic unions. But the amount of
competences the supra-nationallevel has concentratedmakesit a priority to assert the political dimension
of theseentities, a political dimension thatrequires the setting-up of fully-fleshedmechanisms of
connection to citizens’ interest as a prioritytarget. On this basis onlycansupra-nationalentitiesbeentitled
to taketheir place in the architecture of multipolar global governance
Introduction by Mr Bruno Maçaes, Secretary of State for EU Affaires, Lisbon (PT)
EU democratisation for a sustainable Europe in a peaceful world, by Christel
Hahn, Member of directory board, Club Newropeans (DE)
Regions, Nation-States, Citizens and Democracy in Global Governance, by K. N. Harilal,
Professor, Centre for DevelopmentStudies, Trivandrum, Kerala (IN)
15.30-16.30
Combining supranational entities and nation-states into the architecture of XXIstmultipolar
global governance
The currentdysfunctionality of international institutions canbeanalysed as a result of the unbalanced
basis on whichtheyoperate: nation-states, rangingfrom super-states like China to small countries
likeLithuania. This unbalanceis one the reasonswhyregionalintegrationprocesseswerelaunched in the
second half of the XXthcentury. It is time to reflect over the integration of supranational entities to the
architecture of global governance, in awaythat respects/reinstates the national leveltoo.
Regionalintegration in Latin America and the shiftingrole of Brazil as global player, by JanWillem Le Grand, PhD, Strategic Policy Advisor, Western HemisphereDepartment, Ministry of
ForeignAffairs, The Hague (NL)
The South African Customs Union (SACU) and the SouthernAfricanDevelopmentCommunity
(SADC) - somelessons, by Michael Kahn, Professor Extraordinaire, StellenboschUniversity /
Director, Research and Innovation Associates, Cape Town (ZA)
Articulating states, regions and world into a functional global governance architecture – the
specific case of SAARC, by Bhanu Joshi, Researcher, Centre for Policy Research (IN)
16.30-17.00
Break
17.00-18.00
Adapting the model of regionalintegration to the invention of a multipolar global
governance
Regionalintegrations are based on the ideathatneighbouringpoliticalentitiesof different sizes,
cultures, languages and sometime a conflictinghistorycanbuildwin-wincooperation and
sharepeace and prosperityinstead of makingwars. The XXIstcenturymultipolar world
presentssimilarcharacteristicswith the components of supranational entities : big states or
groups of states of different sizes, cultures, languages and sometime a
conflictinghistorywhoneed to inventtheirwin-win model of interaction in order to
avoidgrowingconflicts
EuroBRICS, a move to a faircooperation of Global Regions in a multipolar world, by Alexander
Zhebit, PhD, Professor of International Studies, UniversidadeFederal do Rio de Janeiro (BR)
One Belt - One Road: a global new deal? - Lessonsfrom China on sharing prosperity at the
global scale, by Song Hong,Senior fellow, Professor, and Assistant Director General of IWEP,
ChineseAcademy of Social Sciences, Beijing (CH)
18.00-19.00
Obstacles, feasibility and role of states in the process
A prosperous, peaceful and sustainable world is of course acommon goal. Based on the
previous discussions on a relevant model to reachthis goal must befollowed by a debate on
how to initiate a process of adaptation of global governance to XXIstcenturycharacteristics,
takingintoaccountthat the sole level of politicallegitimacy and leverageis the nation-states
whichistherefore instrumental.
Boundary conditions of multilateralism in the XXI century, by GracjanCimek, DeputyDirector of
the Institute of International Relations, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Polish Naval
Academy in Gdynia (PL)
The BRICS New Development Bank as a Bridge to RegionalIntegration, by MaiaraFolly,
researcher at PUC-Rio (BR)
Debate
Conclusions and closing