|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Pieter DRENTH President All European Academies (ALLEA) Mr. President of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr President of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, It is a great pleasure and honour for me, in my function as President of the European Federation of National Academies of Arts and Humanities (ALLEA), to extend a word of appreciation and compliment to you Mr. President of the Macedonian Academy for organising this important conference on such a timely and relevant theme here in Skopje. You and the organizers hope to develop and shape the vision of a new Balkan, inspired by the keywords collaboration and integration. Let us hope that this vision will be developed and substantiated among others through this conference. Let us hope that in the future the noise of bombs and shells will be replaced again by human voices engaged in discussion and dialogue. It is tragic to observe that a region with such a rich history, such an interesting variety of cultures, languages and religions, and such an astonishing scientific ans scholarly tradition has developed into a region where political and societal disagreements too often were and are sought to be solved by force in stead of reasoning, and by bullets instead of arguments. Ladies and gentlemen, the case of the Balkans is not fundamentally different from that of the rest of Europe, with its many variations and differences in culture, language, religion and political structure. Still Europe is gradually growing - granted slowly, but nevertheless certainly - towards the ideal of a united entity. Not an entity in which these differences are swept away, in which minorities are suppressed, and in which smaller cultures and languages (like your and mine) are marginalised, but a entity that fully recognises the existing differences and variety; in fact, appreciating the rich diversity as an asset with added value. It is my conviction - and I hope to emphasise this further in my paperthis morning -that scientists and scholars can make an important contribution to the promotion of this ideal, and that the organizations of scientists and scholars such as academies of sciences and humanities can and should play a particularly significant role in this respect. This, of course, is afortiori relevant for an alliance of academies, such as ALLEA. As said, ALLEA is the European Federation of National Academies. Its members are academies of sciences and humanities from almost all European countries. ALLEA exchanges information and experience among the academies. In ALLEA the national academies collaborate to serve the national scientific communities, the European scientific and political organizations, and the general public, belt national or within Europe as a whole. The biannual General Assembly with representatives of all academies is the highest authority in ALLEA. ALLEA has an elected President and Steering Committee. Standing committee or ad hoc workgroups focus on specific and important issues such as: the importance of fundamental research, science and ethics, intellectual property rights, privacy in the information society, research strategy in smaller countries, and other aspects of the situation of science and scholarship in Europe. ALLEA was initiated by the Académie des Sciences in Paris, the Royal Society of London, the Royal Swedish Academy, and the Royal Netherlands Academy at the end of the 80´s, when new opportunities in Europe arose due to the end of the cold war and the increasing significance of the European Union in science and higher education. ALLEA has some 47 members now from all over Europe, from Iceland to the Georgian Republic, from within Europe and beyond. I am happy to see that we can count the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts among its members. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a succesful and inspiring conference. I hope it will lead to important and consensual conclusions. I expect to learn a lot about this interesting region and its history, and to take with me some important messages for the future policy, position and activities of ALLEA. Thank you for your attention. Torna indietro |
||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
