3 - 4 December 2007

A Spanish-Ukrainian work session devised to analyse the outlook for bilateral cooperation perspectives and possible contributions by Spain to the transition and consolidation process of the fledgling Ukrainian democracy. The workshop will include participation by 10 leading figures from different fields (politics, business, educational centres, media, administration, etc.) and regions (Kiev, Crimea, Donbass) who will be speaking with their Spanish counterparts in order to identify potential areas for bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and Spain. Thus, the activity will serve to stimulate direct contact between some of the most important institutions from the two countries with the aim of initiating future bilateral cooperation projects.

10th -12th December 2007

The Anti-Trafficking Programme of the OSCE-ODIHR identifies “strengthening access to justice and rights by trafficked persons in OSCE participating States” as one of its main objectives. Furthermore, the OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings recommends that States should “consider legislative provisions for confiscation of the instruments and proceeds of trafficking and related offences” and that “the confiscated proceeds of trafficking will be used for the benefit of victims of trafficking.”

In this document, Flavia Freidenberg, Deputy Director of the Inter-University Institute of Ibero-America at Salamanca University and the author of several books on political systems in Latin America, presents an analysis of the conditions that have contributed to democratic ungovernability in Ecuador between 1978 and 2007.

The issues of Justice and Home Affairs are commanding an increasingly important place in the European Union. Since their inclusion as the "third pillar" in the Maastricht Treaty, cooperation in the spheres of Justice and Home Affairs has been gaining a central importance in the process of European integration, in spite of the fact that the EU's constitutive treaties reserve the greater part of the powers in this sphere for the member states.

The renowned German analyst Jörg Monar, Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, holder of the Marie Curie Chair of Excellence at the Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg and Professor on leave from the Chair of Contemporary European Studies at the University of Sussex, will present the main advances that have been made in issues of Justice and Home Affairs in the European Union's revised Treaty. Professor Monar heads the European Union-financed SECURINT project, which focuses on governing Home Affairs security in the European Union.

December, 13rd and 14th

The fifth edition of the Seminar on Immigration and Europe will analyze elements and instruments that link foreign and migration policies, and it aims to discuss about issues as relations with third countries, readmission agreements, flows managing and development policies among others. Both Member States’ and EU’ initiatives and perspectives will be taken into account in this seminar’s edition.

The first edition of the yearbook on Immigration in Spain will be presented in Madrid. The presentation wil be attended by the directors of the yearbook, Eliseo Aja and Joaquin Arango. Short presentations will be done by Javier Gomez Navarro, President of the Consejo Superior de Cámaras de Comercio, Braulio Medel, President of Unicaja, and Narcís Serra, President of the CIDOB Foundation.

This first edition of the Yearbook on Immigration in Spain is a continuation of the 2005 publication: Veinte años de inmigración en España and it aims to become a basic tool to understand the phenomenon of immigration and its management in Spain.

Round Table

2007 has been a year of hightened tensions, in an already convulsed area as is the Middle East (ensuing Arab-Israeli conflict, internecine Palestinian strife, looming Turkish military incursion in Northern Iraq, etc.). However, a window of opportunity seems to have been opened for dealing more constructively with these crises. A good example for this is the holding of a regional peace conference in Annapolis at the end of November. This Round Table will analyze the events which have influenced the evolving situation in the region and will reflect on the perspectives for peace or conflict during the coming year, in Iraq and the Middle East. For this we will count on the presence of Antoni Segura, Professor of History at Barcelona University, Jaume Saura, Professor of International Law at Barcelona University, Eduard Soler, Coordinator of the Mediterranean Program at CIDOB Foundation, and Elvira Sánchez, Professor of International Relations at IBEI.