Institute of International Politics and Economics, within its long-standing cooperation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation, organized an online academic panel with international participation on the state and prospects of European integration, the socio-political crisis, and academic freedoms, focusing on Serbia, with case studies of Georgia and Hungary as comparable instances of democratic backsliding.
Following brief opening remarks by representatives of the IIPE and the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the panel featured presentations by Dr. Ivana Radić Milosavljević, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade; Dr. Jelena Popov, Lecturer at the Institute of Education, University College London; Dr. Duško Lopandić, Vice-President of the European Movement in Serbia; Dr. Milan Igrutinović, Research Fellow at the Institute for European Studies; Prof. Dr. Andrea Pető of Central European University; Dr. Keti Tsotniashvili, Associate Professor at Ilia State University in Tbilisi (Georgia); and Dr. Vladimir Đorđević, Associate Professor at the Police Academy of the Czech Republic in Prague.
The presentations were discussed by IIPE Senior Research Fellow Dr. Miloš Petrović. After a substantive discussion, it was concluded that academic protests and freedoms are part of a pro-democratic movement that is relevant not only in the context of European integration but also for the democratic future of the country.
