Ventotene International Seminar 2009 - The Program

ALTIERO SPINELLI INSTITUTE FOR FEDERALIST STUDIES

25th International Seminar on Federalism

FEDERALISM IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD

Beyond the Lisbon Treaty, for a federal government and a federal constitution

Ventotene, August 30 - September 4, 2009

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM HERE: CLICK HERE

For many years, the Altiero Spinelli Institute for Federalist Studies has organised a yearly international seminar on the island of Ventotene. This island off the Italian coast, was the place where Altiero Spinelli, author of the Federalist Ventotene Manifesto, was imprisoned during the Second World War. Each year, young Federalists gather here to discuss with leading experts from the European and World Federalist Movement federalist ideas and their application to the European and global context.

Topics & Structure of the seminar

• Topics for this year's conferences will be:
  
• What is a federal state
  
• The world economic crisis: a federalist proposal for a new economic and monetary world order
  
• Energy and environmental policies: a European proposal for a sustainable economic development
  
• European foreign policy between neo-atlanticism and the relaunch of world institutions
  
• European Union and regional unification processes: Africa, Middle East, South America
  
• Strategy and action of the federalist organisations towards a federal Europe
  

Starting with 2007, the traditional structure of the seminar was changed, following the suggestions of previous participants. Each morning will host three talks of 30 minutes each (09.30-11.00), on a general topic. These presentations will be followed by working groups (11.30-13.00). The afternoon session will be devoted to the presentation of the groups' feedback (17.30-18.00) followed by an interactive discussion between the participants and the speakers (18.00-19.30). This way, we want to encourage a more active involvement of all participants into the seminar's works. 

Call for Papers
You are invited again to be a part of this discussion. After the success of last years' editions, a certain number of speakers will be selected on the basis of a Call for Papers, open to everyone interested. The deadline for the submission of an abstract of your paper is June 10. Your abstracts will be reviewed by an Altiero Spinelli Institute (ASI) commission and notices of acceptance will be sent out on approximately June 30.The ASI will provide to the selected speakers full reimbursement of their travel expenses and accommodation and full board for two nights - three days. Speakers who want to attend the whole seminar must fill the online application form (see below), too, specifying that they are submitting a paper. If they are selected for both giving a speech and attending the whole seminar, they will receive full travel reimbursement and will have to pay a fee of 100 € (in this case no caution fee is required). 

All abstracts must contain:

• Author's name and affiliation
  
• Title of the paper
  
• Author's email (check carefully that it is the correct one)
  
• Author's full postal address (street, zip, city and country)
  
• Author's mobile (preferred) or landline (not preferred) phone
  

If you wish to submit an abstract, please send it to Questo indirizzo e-mail è protetto dallo spam bot. Abilita Javascript per vederlo. before June 10. Abstracts sent after the deadline will not be examined by the commission.

PARTICIPATING CONDITIONS

Applications
The online application form must be submitted by June 10 at the very latest. The form is accessible through the Institute's website on http://www.istitutospinelli.org. 

If y ou should encounter any problems with the web-based form, send an email to Questo indirizzo e-mail è protetto dallo spam bot. Abilita Javascript per vederlo. . Make sure that it contains all the same data requested by the web-form. 

Admission
By June 30, an ASI Commission will select the participants and will provide the admitted ones with detailed information concerning the procedure for confirmation, the final programme and how to reach Ventotene. 

Conditions for European participants (coming from outside Italy)
Considering that, in the past years, the participation fee was often higher than the travel expenses, starting with 2005, the ASI decided to abolish both the participation fee and the travel reimbursement. The selected participants will receive without any cost full board and accommodation from the lunch of Sunday Aug. 30 to the lunch of Friday Sept. 4 included. No travel reimbursement is provided. Booking in large advance, it will be possible to fly to Rome or Naples (the closest airports) at very low costs from many places in Europe. 

Conditions for Italian participants
The conditions for Italians applying for the international seminar are instead the same as those of the national seminar (150 € participation fee and 80% travel reimbursement up to a maximum of 70 €). 

Caution money
A caution of 100 € shall be paid in advance by those who have been accepted in the seminar, so that the Institute can book the hotel, without risking own funds in case of last-minute withdrawals. The full amount of 100 € will be given back, cash, to each participant at the end of the seminar, provided that s/he will have attended all sections. Instructions for providing the transfer will be given in the notice of acceptance. 

Working language
English will be the working language for the international seminar. An Italian seminar will be run in parallel, with Italian participants.