Katowice workshop
On May 31, 2021, the first event in our project took place. Due to the pandemic situation, it was held online, although a group of students representing the University of Economics in Katowice managed to meet within the walls of the university (with appropriate pandemic precautions!). The main topic of the meeting was “The Roots of Euroscepticism in the Visegrad Group Countries“. The event was attended by 20 students representing all partner universities and over a dozen of academicians from various research centers.
The participants were first welcomed by prof. dr hab. Maciej Nowak, Vice Rector of the University of Economics in Katowice, and then an expert lecture delivered by prof. Sebastian Płóciennik from the Polish Institute of International Affairs and professor at the Vistula Academy of Finance and Business in Warsaw could begin. The speech was entitled “Germany and the Visegrad Group: from Asymmetry to Complementarity?” and presented the economic relations between the V4 countries and their most important trading partner – Germany.
In the second part of the event, students participated in workshops which aimed to identify the sources of Euroscepticism in the V4 countries and to develop recommendations for decision-makers regarding the possibility of countering this threat. During the discussion moderated by prof. Sławomir Czech the key role of education and reliable information was stressed as factors facilitating learning about the principles on which the EU is organized and about the benefits of membership in it. Conclusions from the discussion will be included in the policy paper which is being prepared by the participants of the event.
In preparation for the workshop, student groups created short clips about the sources of Euroscepticism in their countries. You can watch them by clicking on the links below: