International Event of the FREI Project
We are delighted to invite you to the upcoming international event of the FREI – From Resistance to European Integration project, taking place on 17 December 2026 at the Bruno Kreisky Forum in Vienna, Austria.
The democratic, liberal, and pluralistic order that has existed in our societies and the European Union for decades is one of the greatest achievements in European history. The success of replacing the great, long-standing enmities in Europe with deep, fruitful, and prosperity-generating cooperation and integration is surely an achievement of equal magnitude.
We will look with experts and key actors of recent European History into today’s democratic and human rights system in Europe and how it emerged. We will discuss past and current countertrends that try to limit human rights, liberal democracy and European Integration.
The conference is designed for a younger audience interested in public affairs, European Union history and maintaining and developing democracy.
Funded by the European Union’s CERV - Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme, the FREI project explores the very diverse national journeys from totalitarian regimes towards democracy and European Union membership, focusing on the struggles for democracy and human rights in five EU member states: Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal, and Romania.
Join us for an afternoon of dialogue on where European democracy comes from and where it is heading. Places are limited, so please register below.
AGENDA:
DAY 1, 17th DECEMBER:
Morning Session - only for project partners
09:00–11:00 STUDY VISIT Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW)
Andreas Kranebitter, DÖW Stefan August Lütgenau, Foster Europe
Afternoon Session - open to public
Venue: Bruno Kreisky Forum in Vienna, Austria.
13:00–13:15 REGISTRATION
13:15–13:30 OPENING AND WELCOME
Stefan August Lütgenau, Foster Europe
13:30–14:00 THE LONG JOURNEY: DEMOCRACY AND GENDER EQUALITY
Cornelia Perle, Frauen*solidarität, Austria
14:00–14:30 HUMAN RIGHTS NEVER ENDING STORY: PROPONETS AND DECTRATORS
Ursula Kriebaum, University of Vienna, Austria
14:30–15:00 DEMOCRATIC PENDULUM: BACK AND FORTH SLOVAKIA BETWEEN AUTHORITARIAN LIBERAL TRENDS
Daniel Klimovský, Comenius University, Slovakia (tbc)
15:00–15:30 COFFEE BREAK
15:30–16:30 WITNESS TO EU INTEGRATION
Franz Fischler, EU Commissioner 1995–2004, European Forum Alpbach
16:30–17:00 Q&A AND DISCUSSION
DAY 2, 18th DECEMBER:
Only for project partners
09:30–10:30 STUDY VISIT DEMOCRACY BUILDING - Parliament
10:45–12:00 REGISTRATION
LUNCH BREAK & VIDEO CORNER Interviews: “What does democracy mean to you?”
12:00–13:00 WORKSHOP: MAP TO DEMOCRACY — BUILDING A SHARED EUROPEAN STORY
13:00–14:00 STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING
14:00 END OF DAY 2
REGISTRATION:
The conference is organised within the FREI – From Resistance to European Integration project, a two years project funded by the CERV - Citizens Equality Rights and Values programme of the European Union. The project highlights the facts that democracy was established in fierce struggles and against resistance in each of the countries and that European integration fostered and developed wealth, peaceful, free, liberal democracies. It analyses the pan European efforts to develop our representative democracy further, to find new ways of inclusion and participation (Conference on the Future of Europe) and highlight the fact that the integrated Europe created wealth. The project addresses the shared but highly divers history of totalitarian regimes in five EU Member States, the shared but again diverse process of overcoming totalitarian rule, democratic transition and the individual processes of joining the European Union. The project addresses a mixed target group with a focus on the younger generation (students 18-29) as they will be decisive for the future of our democracies and the European project of Integration. Finally, in the international events (final conference in Strassbourg) and by digital communication (digital exhibition space), the project will reach a wider European public interested in the issue or related to citizens education.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.