Youth and enlargement policy in the focus of the 1st day of the 18th Salzburg Europe Summit 2022
Vienna / Salzburg (OTS) – The Salzburg Europe Summit is taking place in Salzburg for the 18th time. This year’s international congress has the motto: “Visions for Europe: expectations and reality”. The 18th Salzburg Europe Summit got off to a brilliant start with a look at the needs and desires of European youth. The young people had come from Portugal to Georgia. It was clear to everyone: there can only be a future together.
In her keynote speech, Portuguese MEP Lídia Pereira emphasized that young people today have a stronger European identity than they used to. Justice between the living and those not yet born is crucial. Author and EU activist Nini Tsiklauri pointed out that today’s youth in Georgia are literally ready to die for European values. This is not an exaggeration, but historical fact. Anastasiia Hatsenko, student and chairwoman of the Kyiv Pan-European Youth, took the same line. Ukrainians are also ready to die for freedom and European values, “unfortunately whenever they actually do it at the moment”. Klaudia Shullazi from Albania complained about her increased political aggressiveness, but noticed a desire for modernization and reforms at home. This was also underlined by Nikolina Martinović from Montenegro. In view of young people, special attention should be paid to how they actively contribute. The Kosovar student Dastid Morina clearly feels like a European and also advertises to his peers from EU countries, who are often unaware of the many privileges they can enjoy.
The first day of the Salzburg Europe Summit ended with the European political cause primarily of our day, the Russian war of aggression against the Ukraine.
“We have to say it clearly, this is the biggest security crisis in Europe since the end of the Second World War,” said Romanian State Secretary for Security Simona Cojocaru. Ambassador of Ukraine Vasyl Khymynets asked the European people to stand their ground as well as the Ukrainian people are doing. Lukas Mandl, Member of the European Parliament, stressed that it was a war by Putin’s Russia against the free world. With a view to EU enlargement, he pointed out that the undesirable states of the Western Balkans have been waiting for concrete steps for a good two years – this has consequences, for example through the influence of non-European powers.
Maka Botchorishvili, Chairman of the EU Committee of the Georgian Parliament, also emphasized the importance of concrete prospects for developments. Setbacks like the 2016 referendum in the Netherlands would have discouraged some in Georgia, but “a look at the progress shows what is possible and that great achievements are possible if there is perspective”. With regard to the domestic infrastructure, one is currently on the right track, explained the Austrian Chief of Staff Rudolf Striedinger. Austria is preparing for many eventualities. “Russia provoked this war. Two nations are not at war, one has attacked another,” said Katarina Mathernova, Deputy Director General for EU Enlargement Policy in the European Commission, of course. The historian Franziska Davies spoke of a “war against the democratic order”, but it was also clearly a neo-colonial, imperial war. It is becoming increasingly clear how little Russia has been understood in the West.
Questions & contact:
Stefan Haböck, stefan.haböck@institut-ire.eu Mobile: 0650 53 53 230