Joint seminar–policy work days of EDS and Nordic Conservative Student Union (NKSU) took place May 12 – May 15 May in Riga and countryside village Ratnieki, organised by EDS member organisation Latvian Conservative Youth Union(LCYU) and observer members-New Era Youth Section(NEYS).The event started with the welcome speech of Mr. Andreas Michael Klein, Head of Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Baltic States who underlined the importance of the international cooperation and exchange of views among European centre right Youth. The evening was concluded with active singing and dancing together with Latvian folklore group Riga Dances Club.
On Friday the programme was held under the title Security challenges of Latvia and Baltics. The first speaker was Mr. Airis Rikveilis of Director, Military Public Affairs Department, and Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia. Mr.Rikveilis told about new advantages and difficulties for the public relations in defence sector in the age of facebook and twitter. Afterwards the panel on economic security of Latvia took place. Mr. Krišjānis Kariņš, Member of European Parliament from EPP group told about the current agenda and stand points of the different political groups in EP on macro-economic issues. Jānis Dirveiks-young academic and founder of Baltic Vision group gave theoretical introduction into the question and illustrated it with the examples from the experience of Latvia.
After the lunch break participants met Mr.Andris Pelšs, Foreign affairs adviser to the President of State who told about Latvian foreign policy. The presentation was followed by the excursion in the Castle of the Riga-the residence of the president of State. The last panel of the day was dedicated to the energy security of Latvia and Europe where Mr. Juris Ozoliņš, Energy expert; former advisor to EU Energy Commissioner A.Piebalgs and Mrs. Biruta Sloka, Professor, University of Latvia gave detailed and interesting presentations. As a conclusion Mr. Vít Novotný from the Centre for European Studies (CES) briefly told about the recent publication paper on EU-Russia relations and distributed the paper. All speakers of the day got many questions from the participants-on the relations Baltic States and Latvia with Russia, on different EU policies etc. The day was concluded with the official dinner to celebrate the 50 years of EDS.
Saturday was dedicated to the topic of European identity. It started with the panel discussion where Mr.Bence Bauer, Chairman of EDS and Mr. Rolands Irklis from the Civic Union (Vienotība/Unity, Latvia) shared their views on Interaction between national and European identities. Afterwards participants gathered for interactive working groups where many current issues where discussed-for example the draft EPP political platform, so called „Duff report” etc. At the end of the day many concrete policy proposals and comments from the point of view of students interests where prepared.
In general more than 30 participants from different countries- Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, Croatia, Sweden, Bulgaria Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia took place in the event representing national organisations, European Democrat Students and Nordic Conservative Students.
EDS is a member association of