‘Visions of a Wider Europe’ at the HSE in Saint Petersburg

On October 14-16, 2013, the International Student Forum ‘Visions of a Wider Europe’ will take place at the HSE. The Forum is dedicated to the 20^th anniversary of the first negotiations between Russia and the WTO, initiated by the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, and Russia’s imminent entry into the OECD.

‘Visions of a Wider Europe’ has been organized by the HSE Department of Applied Politics in Saint Petersburg, the Foundation of the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, and the International Nongovernmental Organization ‘Dialog – Europe – Russia’.

The following guests will take part in the Forum: Wolfgang Schüssel, Chancellor of Austria from 2000 to 2007; Dr. Martin   Vukovich, former Austrian diplomat, who served at the Austrian embassy in Moscow at the time of the USSR; Robert Ley, Director for Financial and Enterprise Affairs at the OECD, who coordinated Russia’s entry; and Maxim Medvedkov, Director of the Department for Trade Negotiationsof the  Ministry of Economic Development, and main Russian negotiator during Russia’s entry into the OECD.

The Forum has invited participants from all over the world: fifteen students from Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland and Finland, and eleven students from Russia will take part in the event.

Anna Dekalchuk, lecturer at the HSE Department of Politics, spoke to the HSE News Service about the Forum.

— A lot of high-level officials have agreed to come to the Forum. How did you manage to convince them?

— We worked closely with our Austrian partners from ‘Dialog – Europe – Russia’, and  Sergei Kadochnikov, Director of the Saint Petersburg Campus, also helped a lot. It was hard work, but I am delighted that Maxim Medvedkov will speak during the Forum to  students from Russia and member countries of the EU. They will learn about all the difficulties that our country faced during the negotiations, and also about the initial results of Russia’s membership of the WTO, and our future plans.

— What reports will be presented during the conference?

— During the Forum, 26 students from different countries will present their reports. The presentations have been divided into two sections, which will be held simultaneously over the two days. The name of the first section plays on the title of the Beatles’ song and is called ‘The Long and Winding Road to Integration: Sharp Issues and Problems in the Process of Russia’s Accession to the WTO and the OECD’. The reports of this section are dedicated both to Russia’s entry into the WTO, and to the it’s forthcoming entry into the OECD. The reports focus on negotiation problems, including those which were resolved (during the accession to the WTO), or still need to be resolved, for example, the problem of anticorruption law improvement as part of accession to the OECD.

The second section is called ‘Working for Mutual Benefit: Russia’s Economic Development and EU -Russian Relations through the Lens of Russia’s Accession to the WTO’. The reports in this section focus on the benefits of Russia’s membership of the WTO. Several students will also highlight the role of the European Union in the process of Russia’s accession to the WTO, and the benefits of the EU.

Tatyana Chernova