INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “EUROPE AND THE BALKANS – TO BE OR NOT TO BE”

The International conference “Europe and the Balkans – to be or not to be” was organized to mark the tenth anniversary of the Skopje Declaration, which was developed with the contributions of many European and Balkan intellectuals. With this act later, in October 2017, the Academy was established in Bucharest, Romania. The founding assembly, made up of 17 members from across Southeast Europe, chose the legendary Romanian artist and Minister of Culture, Ion Caramitru, as its first president.
The conference was held on January 21, 2025, in the hall of the Cinematheque of Macedonia. Among others, participants included Jean-Patrick Conrad, President of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, and Prince Nikola Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro, President of the Njegoš Foundation. Opening speeches on the theme were given by Jordan Plevnesh, Ljubomir Kekenovski, and Zendelabedin Shehi, alongside numerous leading intellectuals from the fields of science and art from several Balkan countries.
With the support of the Ministry of Culture of Romania, for the first time, the “Ion Caramitru” award for 2024 was presented to the great director Tiago Rodrigues, Director of the International Theater Festival in Avignon, France. Additionally, the “Europa Prima” award was given to the French writer Sylvestre Clancier, President of the Mallarmé Academy in Paris.
The conference also presented the winners of the “Actor of Europe 2025” award, which was given to the renowned German actor and director Brian Michaels, as well as the “Great Charter – The Balkans is the Heart of Europe” award, which went to academician Gradimir Gojer from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In this context, the “Grand Prix International” award for academic institutions was promoted, and it was presented to the Institute for Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology (IZIIS) at UKIM – Skopje, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of this important institution.
The Macedonian municipality of Konče was declared the "Treasury of European Cultural Heritage," and “SEE Personality 2025” went to Mayor Zlatko Ristov.
The recently published proceedings of the eleventh Macedonian-American conference on science and art, by the Universities of Chicago and Arizona, were presented by Prof. Dr. Maja Jakimovska-Tošić.
Furthermore, new members of the Academy from the field of art were elected and promoted by General Secretary Prokopiev, and from the field of science by Prof. Dr. Ljubomir Kekenovski.
Co-organizers of the event included the European Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Literature, the Balkanica Europea Academy, the International University Europa Prima, and the EU Institute in Skopje.

ADDRESS OF PRINCE NICOLAS PETROVICH NJEGOSH

Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, I would like to say how very sorry I am not to have been able to free myself up to be with you during these days devoted to a subject that is particularly close to my heart, being myself European (French) through my Mother and Montenegrin through my Father.
But first of all, I'd like to extend my very best wishes to you at the start of this new year, in particular that 2025 will be a decisive year for progress towards this integration, good for the Balkans, good for Peace, good for Europe and good for the planet.
Like you, I'm convinced that the countries that make up the Balkan galaxy are part of Europe, and as such have a legitimate right to join the European Union.
Allow me to share a few thoughts with you.
Balkan: Bal : Poisonous - honey ... Kan: Glutinous - blood
For too long, the name of this group of coveted territories has had a negative connotation. It's time to read this metaphor in a positive light.
Honey (Bal), beyond being poisonous, is the marvelous product of the extraordinary work of the bees that shape our landscapes, ensuring the reproduction and growth of the plant cover that feeds us and beautifies our landscapes.
 
Blood (kan, glutinous), beyond being glutinous, is the precious liquid that ensures our life through the action of the heart. It symbolizes love and generosity. Isn't it the liquid we can offer to save lives.
It's high time to revisit the negative stereotypes (sticky ball / slimy kan) that devalue the benefits of nature, locking us into an endless history of conflict and frustration.
For centuries, Europe has been a battlefield. But after the deadliest conflict in its history, it was able to unite around “values” rather than power.
Beyond economic and geostrategic interests, we share these values, and that's what drives our aspirations to be part of this great project.
For Europe, it is also imperative to integrate the Balkans in order to preserve peace on the continent and strengthen its position in the face of economic imperialism, which recognizes only financial value and threatens our ecosystem and the fragile balance of the world.
While industrialization and technology developed in the West, the time lost in our identity and political conflicts retarded our development and left immense natural territories uncultivated. Today, faced with the challenge of global warming, it's an exceptional heritage that, if preserved and enhanced, can help to balance our continent's overall balance sheet, while also guaranteeing sustainable development for each and every one of them.
Without this shared awareness, and without the support of the EU, it is to be feared that each of our countries will go it alone and fall prey to powerful groups driven solely by profitability.
I'm convinced that, integrated into Europe, our wounds will heal and we'll once again be in the front line, this time in the battle against global warming, no longer looking to the past and our ancestors, but to the future and our children and grandchildren.
Neka bude sto biti ne moze
Let it become what cannot be

ADDRESS OF JEAN-PATRICK CONNERADE, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ARTS, AND LETTERS

It was never as important as today to achieve a complete perception of the meaning of the phrase “The European spirit.”

Perhaps it is in periods of crisis that one can best ask this kind of question. Clearly, Europe does not appear as a single entity, or even as a strongly coherent federation. At best, it is a league of independent nations, each one having its own peculiar character, which has evolved over centuries of history. None of our nations today would seek to dominate the others, as might have happened in the past, and all of them agree to respect each one of many different civilisations which confronted each other on our territory. That is why, amongst us, small nations, and even the smallest ones, enjoy as much influence as the others, once they have been recognised as belonging to the European family. We have an even stronger principle : that the most powerful nations of Europe, to display their European Spirit  cannot do better than to make use of their own power to protect smaller nations out of solidarity.

The European Spirit is therefore opposed to any form of hegemony, and with good reason. It is in Europe that Humanism and civil freedoms first appeared. They are backed up by a long tradition, extending much further into the past than the Age of Enlightenment, probably as far as the early Middle Ages. We Europeans have always attempted, not always successfully, but always in good faith, to respect these principles and apply them in the best way possible. When the wrong paths were chosen, we always took arms to resolve the issue and follow the right course.

All this implies that we must guard ourselves from all forms of nationalism. Our nations must be able to recognise their own wrong-doings when there are conflicts between them. This ability, far from being considered a form of weakness, is considered among us as the most important and desirable manifestation of our European Spirit of Humanism.

For all these reasons, Europe is able to welcome  several religions on its territory and to reconcile them, provided only that they accept the principle of living harmoniously and at peace with each other. Similarly, the laws of our countries protect the civil rights of women, because European unity was never achieved by force. We have always been held together in our communities by our shared respect for justice.
That is also why some form of democracy will always appear to us as the most appropriate social and political organization for the peoples of our continent.