European Forum

First Promising Politicians seminar 2009 in Montenegro

Between 14 and 18 May Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in cooperation with Alfred Mozer Stichting and the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity organized a seminar for young and promising politicians and members of social democratic parties from the countries of former Yugoslavia and Albania. The seminar, in which 28 participants participated, took place in Bečići in ‘wild beauty’ Montenegro and can be considered a great success.

Since 2003 the seminar has been organized three times annually and the course includes seminars on ideology, media and communications skills and EU integration. The aim of the course is to introduce young politicians to the various aspects of political leadership, governance and the dynamics and structures of party policies. In addition, the organisers aim to create a network among young and politically active persons and to improve their knowledge on the political developments of countries in the region.

After the welcome by the organisers, the seminar started with a ‘getting to know each other’ game which required from each of the participant to interview his neighbour and introduce him or her to the group. This workshop aimed at breaking the ice and allowing participants to get familiar with each other.

Mainstream political streams
The theme of the first seminar was ‘Social Democracy and its Policies’ and therefore the trainer, Arjen Berkvens (director of the AMS and Secretary General of the European Forum), prepared an introduction on the history and the values of social democracy. He touched upon necessary elements such as the roots of the social democratic movement, the ideology of social democracy, its values, and its meaning for the welfare state. This was followed by a short discussion during which the participants expressed their trust in the future of social democracy.

After this introduction trainer Danijel Tadic (AMS and European Forum) gave an outline of other mainstream political theories: liberalism and conservatism. This was followed by the first workshop that dealt with the differences between social democracy, liberalism and conservatism. The participants were divided into six groups. Each group was asked to make a list of three topics that would give an insight in the priorities of each political mainstream theory that was appointed to them.

Social security, health care and education
The second part of the seminar dealt with social democratic issues. Trainer Milan Zivkovic (director of political academy “Novo Društvo”, Croatia) gave a presentation about how to go from theory to practice. He discussed various social policy institutions like pension and health services. The second workshop dealt with social security. Each group had to focus on one specific social security institution and had to make a new policy. The participants showed great eagerness and creativeness in resolving this assignment.

Second day of the seminar started with a short summary of the previous day. Milan Zivkovic gave an introduction on health care which was followed by a workshop on health care from the social democratic, liberal and conservative perspective. It was stressed that the role of education and prevention is rising.

After a short break, Milan gave an introduction on education. The fourth workshop had the same structure as the previous one but the participants had to choose if they would focus on pre-school education or universities.

Strategy and message
After lunch, Arjen Berkvens gave a presentation on how to go from practice to strategy. He stressed that it is important to have a clear central message, which is a key to success. This presentation was followed by a workshop were the imagined country Montaldonia played an important role. The participants had to make a matrix were the strong and weak points were made clear and the opportunities and threats were defined.

Arjen Berkvens gave a presentation on message, pledges and slogans. He pointed out that it was necessary to have a clear, concise, compelling, connected, contrasted, and credible message. This was followed by the last workshop. Each group had to make its own central message for their imagined country Montaldonia.

Guest speakers
The last day of the seminar welcomed speaker Sebastjan Jeretic (pubilc relations expert of the Social Democrats (SD) in Slovenia) who discussed the future and current challenges for social democracy. This presentation was followed by a presentation on the economic crisis and its consequences for the countries in the region by Michael Ehrke (director of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung office in Belgrade). The first seminar ended with a very interesting presentation by Jelena Mitrovic (president of SDP Youth organization in Montenegro), participant at the promising politician course of 2007. She gave an overview of the success of the social democratic youth organization of Montenegro in which she played an important role.

Conclusions and recommendations
The atmosphere in the group was good from the start. The sessions were attended by all invited participants.

At the evaluation it became clear that all participants enjoyed the interactive method of presentation followed up by workshops. They all stated that the good organisation and topics made it an unforgettable seminar were they learned a lot in a short amount of time. The creation of a network was one of the main goals of the course and the good atmosphere in the group witnessed this achievement.

The second seminar will be held between 8 and 11 October in Sarajevo and will deal with media relations and communication skills. The third and final seminar will be held between 5 and 8 November in Tirana and will discuss negotiation skills and the European Union integration of the region.