PROJECT TITLE: Wheeling EU Enlargement: A 30-Day Road Trip Fueled by Public Law and Culture
COUNTRIES: Western Balkans and Turkey
OVERALL OBJECTIVE: Through this journey participants had the opportunity to acquire an understanding of each country’s public law system, politics and cultural makeup, as well as the correlations between public law and culture, and explored concepts such as identity and community in view of legal and cultural integration. Including countries that are old member states, new member states and candidate and potential countries to EU Enlargement, regionally associated, was meant for having four degrees of EU integration and enlargement.
ACTIVITIES:
2011 was the year of the launch for a new educational program of the EPLO, the “Wheelpedia”. A month-long journey of a bus full of students from different countries, started from Rome on May 21 and after crossing the Balkans, arrived in Athens on June 21, transcending the borders of traditional education, connecting cities, ideas, laws and cultures and uniting Universities and communities.
This project was the pilot course of the Wheelpedia program. Students were selected from universities located at these cities (equal number of students from each university).
During each stopover at the selected cities, which lasted 2 days on average (depending on the travelling schedule), the students attended a lecture on the topic of public law and culture infused by the distinctive perspective towards EU Enlargement of the country they are at, as well as workshops/debates with the participation of representatives of the civil society, local authorities, the media and the academia, at the partner-universities (and the premises of the EPLO in Brcko and Athens). In addition the students visited places of cultural significance (landmarks, museums, concert halls etc.) both characteristic of the cultural heritage and the contemporary cultural scene of each city. The road trip ended in Athens with a cultural event hat also included presentations of the students on the trip.
FUNDING AGENCY: European Commission
LEADER: EPLO
PARTNERS: Public Art Lab, University of Rome “Tor Vergata” Faculty of Economics, University of Parma, University of Ljubljana - Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb - Faculty of Law, Union University Law School Belgrade, Brcko National School of Public Administration, University of Sarajevo - School of Economics and Business, University of Montenegro, European University of Tirana - Faculty of Law, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius - Iustinianus Primus Faculty of Law, New Bulgarian University, National School of Political Studies and Public Administration of Romania - Faculty of Public Administration, University of Istanbul - Faculty of Law, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Cyprus, University of Prishtina - Faculty of Law
TIME FRAME: 2011