More than four years have passed since the war over Ukraine, the tense relationship between the EU and Russia remains unchanged. Both sides seem to be unable or unwilling to agree on almost anything. Russia’s alleged assertive behaviour in the cyberspace is in the centre of the discussion in the West, a policy of deterrence is the dominating approach when it comes to the relations with Moscow. The policy of sanctions further escalated in 2018, and is predicted to tighten further in 2019. It has become the “new normal” and lifting them is not yet on the horizon. In EU-Russia bilateral relations there are still issues and segments in which both need to work together. In order to answer the question on how to overcome the stalemate the conference is aiming at: 1) Mapping those areas of mutual importance and common denominators; 2) outlining steps that may lead to dialogue and selective engagement. The conference is comprised of two panels. The first discusses contentious multilateral issues such as the war in Eastern Ukraine, cooperation in Syria or the policy of international sanctions. The second panel explores how resilient the bilateral relationship is and what the possible segments of the selective engagement are, among others bilateral trade or energy issues.

13:30 – 14:00                       Registration

14:00 – 14:10                       Opening Remarks

Beate Martin, Director, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Budapest Office

Péter Balázs, Director, CEU Center for European Neighborhood Studies (CENS) 

14:10 – 15.45                       Panel I:  Multilateral issues

Florent Parmentier, Assistant Director, School of Public Affairs, Science Po, Paris

Derek Averre, Reader in Russian and Security Policy, Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies, University of Birmingham, UK

Vladimir Morozov, “Russian-German Dialogue” Programme manager, Russian International Affairs Council, Moscow

Chair: Anton Bendarjevskiy, Independent expert on post-Soviet affairs, former Director of PAIGEO, Budapest                        

15:45 – 16.15                       Coffee Break

16:15 – 17.45                       Panel II: Bilateral issues

Vasily Astrov, Senior Economist, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, Vienna

Tatiana Romanova, Associate Professor, European Studies Department, Saint-Petersburg State University; Head of Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, St. Petersburg

Tom Casier, Reader in International Relations and Jean Monnet Chair, Brussels School of International Studies, University of Kent, Brussels

Chair: Annamária Kiss, Research Fellow, CENS

17:45 – 18:00                       Concluding remarks

Please RSVP under this link: https://forms.gle/VHicTQrWRxg4PjwR7