2000 – Today
Rebirth of the European Cultural Centre
At the end of the 1990s, the Centre entered a deep crisis. The management established in 1992 lost the confidence of the political authorities, notably the Canton, which withdrew its financial support, as well as that of its main collaborators. It also lost its premises, as the City of Geneva, owner of the Villa Moynier, wanted to undertake its complete renovation. During these troubled times, Mr Michael Schneider, a business lawyer, took over the Presidency, even though the Centre was being considered for dissolution.
In this very difficult context, Professor Dusan Sidjanski, founder and former Director of the Department of Political Science at the University of Geneva, resolutely opposed the closure of the Centre during the years 2000-2002, highlighting in particular the European heritage that he had represented since the Hague Congress. He was supported by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Geneva, Professor Charles Méla, by the new Prime Minister of Portugal, José Manuel Barroso, and by the Union of European Federalists. Dusan Sidjanski was elected President in 2003. With great energy, he launched new activities. The Latsis Foundation provided the necessary logistical support by making its premises and part of its secretariat available.
In 2004, Professor Sidjanski also became a special advisor to the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, who was his student and then his assistant
in the early 1980s at the University’s Department of Political Science, which strengthened the Centre’s ability to make its voice heard by the European Union’s authorities.
New activities were developed, in particular the “Main à la Pâte” from 2002, the relaunch of the Dialogue of Cultures in 2004, with a meeting in Geneva and a major colloquium in Lisbon, as well as a new series of conferences on Europe inaugurated in 2005 at the Aula of the University of Geneva by José Manuel Barroso, who presented his vision of the European Union and its future.
In 2008, Professor Charles Méla, former Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Geneva and Director (until 2013) of the Martin Bodmer Foundation in Cologny, became President of the Centre, while Professor Sidjanski became Honorary President and Acting President until Charles Méla stepped down from the management of the Bodmer Foundation.
In November 2014, José Manuel Barroso, former President of the European Commission, and Micheline Calmy-Rey, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and former President of the Swiss Confederation, agreed to be, alongside Professor Sidjanski, Honorary Chairs of the Centre.
Activities (2000 – Today)
European Conference Cycle
The Centre’s lecture-debate series on Europe and the future of the European Union was inaugurated in the Aula of the University of Geneva in 2005 by José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. These conferences and debates are organised with the support of the Directorate for European Affairs (formerly the Integration Office) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and in close collaboration with the Institute of Global Studies (formerly the European Institute) and the Centre for European Legal Studies of the University of Geneva, as well as with the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
Many personalities are among the speakers who honoured the invitation of the Centre, such as José Manuel Barroso, Viviane Reding, José Maria Gil-Robles, Simone Veil, Elisabeth Guigou, Bronislaw Geremek, Péter Balzas, Pascal Lamy, Ernest-Antoine Sellière, Eneko Landaburu, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, Georges Nivat, Dusan Sidjanski, Jean-Louis Quermonne, Joël de Rosnay, François Nordmann, Fathallah Sijilmassi, Samir Frangieh, Fabrice Picod, Fausto de Quadros, Bernard Guetta, Patrick Odier . ..
European Federation and Europe of Regions according to Denis de Rougemont
On the theme of federalism and the future of the European Union, a reflection group met at the initiative of the Centre in April 2012 at the Château de Coppet in the presence of Commission President José Manuel Barroso and the Director General of the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) Jean-Claude Thébault. The meeting was deemed enriching by all participants, which encouraged the Centre to conduct a longer-term project in this field. Building on the initial lines of thought outlined in Coppet, the Centre has thus begun, from 2013 onwards, thanks to several private sponsors, a twofold research project on the federalist future of the European Union and on the place of the Regions in the future Federation, by endeavouring to update the thinking of Denis de Rougemont.
Work is being carried out on these two themes and personalities from the academic, political and economic worlds are being consulted, such as Professor Jean-Louis Quermonne, the former Governor of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet, and the essayist Joël de Rosnay. The main areas of reflection concern the federalisation of the euro zone, conceived as the core of the future federation, the improvement of the democratic functioning of the European Union, the role of the European Commission, the place of Europe in the world, the challenges of foreign and security policy, fundamental rights, the regions and the idea of a Senate of the Regions, and the identification of the main provisions that could be included in a basic constitutional charter.
The aim is to arrive at a set of proposals on these different points which will then be exchanged more widely, with the guiding idea of contributing to the debate on the evolution of the European Union.
Russia and European Union
The Centre wishes to promote a better dialogue between the European Union and Russia, as the latter belongs culturally to the European whole, even if it does not aspire to join the Union. Professor Sidjanski has consistently defended this idea for several years. He took an active part in a Carnegie Foundation and BEPA colloquium on this topic, as well as on the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood Policy, in May 2012 in Brussels at the Commission’s headquarters. He argued that without Russia as a key partner, it is illusory to think that a strong Eastern Partnership with the three Caucasus countries of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova can ever be achieved.
Despite a context made even more difficult by the crisis in Ukraine and the policy of sanctions against Russia, a preparatory meeting in the form of a closed seminar was held in June 2014 in Geneva, during which an action plan was discussed and developed for a future EU-Russia colloquium. This colloquium should be moderated by Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, Permanent Secretary of the French Academy.
The Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA http://ec.europa.eu/bepa/index_fr.htm) to the Presidency of the Commission was represented at this meeting by Eric Peters, while the Consul General of Russia in Geneva, Yuri Gloukhov, was also able to participate in the introductory part.
Among the active participants in this small group were Georges Nivat, Honorary Professor at the University of Geneva and a leading expert on Russia, and Professor Wolfgang Danspeck-Gruber, Director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University.
The participants stressed the need to reflect independently on the issue of Russia-EU relations, as the Centre is trying to do. They concluded that the future colloquium should focus on highlighting the deep elements of the relationship between the two partners, drawing lessons from positive and negative experiences, identifying the political conditions and instruments needed to revive relations that have been degraded by the Ukrainian crisis, so as to be able to formulate a number of concrete proposals for the period 2014-2019 corresponding to a new leadership in the European Union (new Parliament, new Commission, new President of the European Council). Beyond Russia, the colloquium could also enable the EU to better understand the Eurasian Union project and thus better define the prospects for cooperation with this new entity.
Dialogue of Cultures
Following the tradition of the first two “Dialogues of Cultures” initiated by Denis de Rougemont in Geneva in 1961 and in Basel in 1964 (Europe-World Conference), the Centre organised two international meetings on this theme in 2004, one in Geneva in January in cooperation with the University (Faculty of Arts) and the Latsis Foundation, the other in Lisbon in April at the Gulbenkian Foundation with the support of the Latsis and Luso-American Foundations and under the patronage of Prime Minister José Manuel Barroso, who opened the session with a vibrant tribute to Denis de Rougemont, whose student he was. Amongst the presentations were those of Professor of Legal Philosophy Alexis Keller on the Geneva Agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, of which he was one of the inspirers, and that of Hélène Ahrweiler, former Rector of the Académie de Paris, on the theme of education and peace, whilst European Commissioner Viviane Reding evoked the role of the European Union in opening up to the world in the field of education, in particular through the Erasmus Mundus programme. The contribution of Europe to the dialogue of cultures was addressed by Professors Dusan Sidjanski and Fernando Gil (from the University of Lisbon), while Professor Umberto Gori (University of Florence) showed the cultural challenges of globalisation. The pluralist essence of an intrinsically diverse European culture was the common thread of various interventions, notably those of Professors Charles Méla and Alain de Libera (University of Geneva and École pratique des Hautes Études de Paris). Professor Maurice-Ruben Hayoun (University of Geneva) contributed his reflections on Jewish identity and European culture, while the writer Abdelwahab Meddeb spoke about the divisions in contemporary Islam.
The most significant contributions of the Geneva and Lisbon meetings resulted in the book Dialogue of Cultures at the Dawn of the 21st Century: a tribute to Denis de Rougemont, published in 2007 in the collection of the European Centre for Culture by Bruylant (Brussels).
Through its President, Charles Méla, the Centre has also actively participated in several initiatives of the Martin Bodmer Foundation. In particular, we can mention the exhibition on “East – West, spiritual roots of Europe” in 2009 (Proceedings published in 2014), “Solzhenitsyn, the courage to write” in the presence of the writer’s wife in 2011, “Alexandria the Divine” in 2014, accompanied by a scientific symposium on “Barbarian Wisdom” (27-30 August), supported by the International Latsis Foundation, on the relationship between the Greek and non-Greek (barbarian, including Christian) worlds in the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman period, through the interest of the Greeks in the barbarians, Egyptians, Persians, Chaldeans, Jews and Indians, and in their philosophy. The cultural landscape of the Mediterranean and the East was profoundly modified by this and the baton was passed on to the sciences and wisdom of Baghdad in the 10th century, Cordoba and Toledo in the 12th century and Florence in the 15th century. In this context, the Centre has twice participated in the “Orient – Occident Meetings” organised at the Château Mercier in Sierre and in an exhibition in Paris in the Miró Hall of UNESCO (from 15 to 25 November 2010) of 57 photographs by Frédéric Möri on “Orient-Occident. Spiritual roots of Europe”, followed by a conference-debate in Room IV, in the framework of the World Philosophy Day (2010, International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures).
La main à la pâte, promoting science education in Europe
Promoting European education remains an important objective for the European Centre for Culture. In 1999, during the Latsis Foundation Awards, Professor Sidjanski met the Nobel Prize in Physics (1992) Georges Charpak, who told him about an innovative method of familiarising young children with the scientific process that he had developed with Leon Lederman, another Nobel Prize in Physics (1988): “La Main à la Pâte”.
This is a playful and experimental method of introducing 4-5 year olds to the scientific process and reasoning. It awakens their curiosity by teaching them to dialogue with others – and therefore to respect them – through the exchange of rational and convincing arguments. Beyond the scientific aspect in the strict sense, its characteristics also make it a method for learning about democratic debate and life in society. For example, in classes where it has been introduced, a significant reduction in violence between pupils has been observed. It is therefore also a tool for social integration.
On the strength of his initial contacts with Georges Charpak as well as with some of his colleagues such as Yves Quéré and Pierre Léna (of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of France), Professor Sidjanski convened a colloquium in 2002 at the Centre Européen de la Culture, led by Georges Chapark and Yves Quéré, which was attended by some twenty teachers and those responsible for education policy in the French-speaking cantons of Switzerland. The experiment then developed very quickly thanks to a partnership with the Sciences-Cité platform of the University of Geneva. Unfortunately, the introduction of the experiment into school curricula came up against administrative obstacles, aggravated by the cantonal fragmentation of education policies, which hindered its dissemination in Switzerland.
At the European level, Professor Sidjanski organised a meeting in Paris in 2005 between Georges Charpak and President Barroso to make the latter aware of the importance of “La Main à la Pâte”. 1.75 million in funding from the EU as part of the “Pollen” project, which networks twelve science incubator cities. In 2010, the ‘Fibonacci’ project (named after a 13th century Pisan mathematician) took over from ‘Pollen’. The transition from “La Main à la Pâte” to “Pollen” was presented in September 2010 by Professor Sidjanski at a conference at the University of Bayreuth entitled “European Cultural Heritage and the Role of Science and Mathematics”. He also paid tribute to Georges Charpak at a ceremony held on 1 March 2011 at the Academy of Sciences of the Institut de France in Paris. The most significant contributions of the Geneva and Lisbon meetings resulted in a book entitled Dialogue of Cultures at the Dawn of the 21st Century: a tribute to Denis de Rougemont, published in 2007 in the collection of the European Centre for Culture by Bruylant (Brussels).
Through its President, Charles Méla, the Centre has also actively participated in several initiatives of the Martin Bodmer Foundation. In particular, we can mention the exhibition on “East – West, spiritual roots of Europe” in 2009 (Proceedings published in 2014), “Solzhenitsyn, the courage to write” in the presence of the writer’s wife in 2011, “Alexandria the Divine” in 2014, accompanied by a scientific symposium on “Barbarian Wisdom” (27-30 August), supported by the International Latsis Foundation, on the relationship between the Greek and non-Greek (barbarian, including Christian) worlds in the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman period, through the interest of the Greeks in the barbarians, Egyptians, Persians, Chaldeans, Jews and Indians, and in their philosophy. The cultural landscape of the Mediterranean and the East was profoundly modified by this, and the baton was passed on to the sciences and wisdom of Baghdad in the 10th century, Cordoba and Toledo in the 12th, and Florence in the 15th. In this context, the Centre has twice taken part in the “East-West Encounters” organised at the Château Mercier in Sierre and in an exhibition in Paris in the Miró Hall of UNESCO (from 15 to 25 November 2010) of 57 photographs by Frédéric Möri on “East-West. Spiritual roots of Europe”, followed by a conference-debate in Room IV, in the framework of the World Philosophy Day (2010, International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures).
Pluralism and Education in Central and South Eastern Europe
In December 2012, at a meeting in Berlin, the Centre decided to join the “EU-36” project for reflection on future enlargements of the European Union, led by the Central European University in Budapest and its Centre for EU Enlargement Studies headed by Professor Péter Balázs. In April 2013, the Centre organised with the European Institute of the University a colloquium in Geneva on the theme “Democracy, Institutions and Identity” which was held in the framework of EU-36. It organised a round table introduced by Boris Tadic, former President of Serbia, with the participation of several Ambassadors from the countries concerned (Albania, Turkey, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia). The day before the colloquium, the Centre organised a public lecture by Professor Balázs at the University of Geneva on the theme of the future of the European Union by 2020. The work of the EU-36 group was published in June 2014 by the Central European University under the title A European Union with 36 Members? Perspectives and Risks. It includes contributions from Professor Dusan Sidanski, Honorary President of the Centre, and Dr François Saint-Ouen, Secretary General, as well as from Professor Nicolas Levrat and Dr Frédéric Esposito, from the European Institute of the University of Geneva.
For its part, the Centre wished to initiate an action aimed at going beyond the formal criteria currently in force to declare a country fit to join the European Union (Copenhagen criteria). It has come to the conclusion that beyond the formal aspects of respect for the rule of law and the organisation of free elections, for example, it is important to promote the practical application of the ideals of democracy and pluralism, as well as the rejection of nationalism. It stresses that education, and in particular history as taught to students, plays a major role in this context.
This is why the Centre has nurtured the project “Pluralism and Education”, which aims to promote a conception of history, civics and pluralism, compatible with European values and as far away from nationalism as possible, in six countries: Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia. It is planned to develop it with various partnerships, particularly in the countries concerned.