Abstract
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe seemed like fertile soil for liberal ideas of freedom and human rights. Some twenty years later, the full potential of liberalism has only been realised in a few countries, leaving many countries without a properly functioning liberal party active in the respective parliaments and governments.
Together with professors from leading universities and research institutes in five countries in the region (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) the ALDE Party embarked on a comprehensive research project, one of the first of its kind in the area. It attempts to analyse both the successes and missed opportunities of liberals in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as to point towards future electoral potential for parties active in these countries and, more broadly, in the concerned region.
Join ALDE Party President Sir Graham Watson and the leading professors from each country to both discuss challenges ahead and ask informed questions! Keynote speeches by: •Sir Graham Watson MEP, President, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party •Jean-Michel De Waele, Dean, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles Discussion with the project's national coordinators: •Blagovesta Cholova, project coordinator, Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) •Antony Todorov, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria •Michel Perottino, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic •Anna Paczesniak, Wroclaw University, Poland •Ovidiu Vaida, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania •Grigorij Meseznikov, Institute for Public Affairs (IVO), Bratislava, Slovakia