On the 2nd of June, 2014, the Center for EU Enlargement Studies of the Central European University, in cooperation with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Budapest, organized the one-day conference entitled "The Quality of Democracy: 25 years later". The event was meant to commemorate the quarter of a century since the fall of the Berlin wall and the adoption of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. The conference was dedicated to the Visegrád area countries, and their democractic progress, and the relationship they enjoy with the European Union 10 years after the 2004 accession. The progress of democracy was evaluated utilizing a few important markers, such as the freedom of media and press, the value of citizenship and the status of minorities and of gender. The first panel was dedicated to the exploration of the progress made in the area of human rights and freedom of the media, with three speakers: 

• Miklós Haraszti, (UN Rapporteur, CEU visiting Researcher): Media Landscape and Media Governance in the Third Decade

• Henry Loeser (Masaryk University): Alternative Broadcasting for the Czech Republic – Does Anyone Really Care?

• Péter Molnár (CEU Center for Media and Communications Studies): Twelve Points on Freedom of Speech and of the Press in Europe

 The second panel was dedicated to the concepts of citizenship and minorities, with three speakers:

• Vizi Balázs (Institute for Minority Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences): Minority issues in the EU: is there a new era after enlargement?

• Andrea Pető (CEU Department of Gender Studies): Equality Redefined

• Bartha Attila (CEU Center for Policy Studies): European Experts versus Populist National Elites? Reinventing the European Project with Active Citizens

 The conference revealed a number of problems in the areas discussed, and where further progress and development is needed, especially in the area of media issues and policies toward women and other minorities.  

More information can be found in the CEU news article about the event:

http://www.ceu.hu/article/2014-06-06/experts-examine-quality-democracy-2...