“Family Europe” Conference Concludes
The Conference of the Polish Society of Political Thought in Vilnius and the Association of Polish Scientists in Lithuania.
On April 9-11th 2014 in the House of Polish Culture in Vilnius, an international conference was organised by the Polish Society of Political Thought (PTMP) – an association of scholars and PhD students dealing with political and legal doctrines and history of law – and the Association of Polish Scientists in Lithuania (SNPL) – the most important Polish scientific association in Lithuania. The conference was held under the title “Family Europe –European Political Thought and the Challenge of the 21st Century”. It was sponsored by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and held under the honorary patronage of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland in Lithuania and the media patronage of the editors of New Eastern Europe.
May 20, 2014 -
Paweł Fiktus
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Events
The conference was opened by Prof. Maciej Marszał of Wrocław University and President of the PTMP, as well as Prof. Henryk Malewski from the SNPL. Other speeches were provided by guests of honour, including: Edyta Tamoštiŭnaitĕ; Czesław Okińczyc (signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania); Jarosław Czubiński, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland in Lithuania; and Prof. Alvydas Nikžentaitis –President of the Polish-Lithuanian Jerzy Giedroyc Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation.
The first meetings of the joint conference organised by both associations were carried out in five sections: globalisation in the modern world, multiculturalism in Europe, the European tradition of political thought, contemporary development trends of European thought, the problem of security in Eastern and Central Europe and the challenges and threats of the 21st century (Poland – Lithuania – Ukraine) and humanities and society. Although the conference was organised by the academic associations, it was open and the meeting was attended not only by the members of both organisations, but also scholars not related to the PTMP or SNPL.
The section devoted to the relationship between Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania and the European Union gathered a lot of people interested in the subject. It is worth noting the remarks by Tomasz Snarski (University of Gdańsk) devoted to the European Union towards multiculturalism and the protection of the linguistic rights of Poles in Lithuania. Tomasz Chłopecki (University of Wrocław) discussed bilateral relations of Poland and Lithuania at the turn of the 21st and Elżbieta Kuzborska (University of Białystok – a branch in Vilnius) commented on the protection of national minorities in Lithuania before and after the accession to the EU.
Other issues raised related to Eastern Europe, as exemplified by the remarks of Prof. Iwan Monolatii (Jan Kochanowski University – branch in Piotrków Trybunalski) which addressed the issues of modern political thought of Ukraine; Daniel Butyter (University of Wrocław) about the prospects for cooperation between the EU and Ukraine; or Prof. Anna Machnikowska (University of Gdańsk) which dealt with the changes of ownership rights in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe.
The outputs of the conference will be compiled and published in a volume containing the speeches released by PTMP and SNPL.
To see the full conference programme visit: http://www.ism.uni.wroc.pl/download.php?u=7&f=Program_konfji_SNPL_i_PTMP_20032014.pdf
