Leo van Doesburg

The coming days I will be traveling again. The coming time, the posts on this blog will mainly focus on a report about my travels and my impressions. My travel schedule is as follows: 28 October-1 November : I will participate to the ECPYN regional congress: “Georgia and Post-Soviet Space in common European context”. I was asked to speak about the topic: "The role of Christianity in post Soviet politics". More information about this congress you will find on www.ecpyn.org 2-4 November : I will be in Moldova where I will have several meetings and trainings with our partners in Moldova. Also there will be a special training and discussion organized by the Youth Parliament where I have to speak about: "European Union between identity and integration" 5-8 November: I will be in Riga to participate amongst others to the Latvian National Prayer Breakfast. All these activities are planned Deo Volente. And would like to ask your prayers for the trip and all the events

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Poland and Sweden have in a joint strategy paper indicated the EU is unlikely to invite any of its post-Soviet neighbours to join the bloc in the next 10 years. Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski and Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt set out their vision for the EU's future relations with neighbouring countries in a letter on 6 October to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and neighbourhood commissioner Stefan Fuele. The letter noted that Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine could one day become EU members, unlike countries in north Africa and the Middle East. "Some [countries bordering the EU] are European and thus enjoy special status in accordance with the treaties, others will remain neighbours of Europe," it said. But the four-page-letter nowhere said the EU should give the group 'an enlargement perspective.' It instead set out an everything-but-enlargement vision in which the six gradually adopt the E...

From October 28th to November 1th ECPYN will organize a Regional Conference in Georgia. The aim of this visit is to study local political situation, activities of Christian Democratic Movement and to discuss vitally important issues for Post Soviet countries, like integration in EU and European Structures. During this conference we will work on promoting mutual contacts between political youth organizations and diffusing and exchange of knowledge and experience between participants. We want to create an idea about Georgia and its internal and external politics and provide participants with meeting Georgian political elite. We also want to extend participants knowledge in European integration and post-soviet space and promote international discussion between Post Soviet countries. A big part of the conference will also be the knowledge of the role of Christianity in post-soviet space and promote the Christian Democratic ideas. More information you will find on the website of the ecpyn: ...

Last time I shared my first impressions of the visit to Georgia and the beauty of the country. Here is the second part of my impressions of my trip to Georgia. In addition to everything I saw and learned about Georgia, it was impressive to visit one of the regional offices of the CDM in Telavi. The leader of the office demonstrated how they try to involve the local people in the activities of the CDM. They have a lot of people involved already and have organized special actions, like a walk to a local church that was difficult to reach. This created not only a good team feeling for the leadership team of the regional branch of the party but also much goodwill for the people in the area that is difficult to reach, because although the cities are well-developed, the rural areas are still quite poor and in need of development. Toast your heritage In the evening, a special surprise was prepared: for my birthday they organized a special dinner in a very traditional place in...

On 20th April, Easter Monday, I left Romania again for an exciting new trip, visiting Armenia, Georgia and Warsaw. In this third report I would like to tell about my trip to Georgia. The aim of that visit was to learn more about their situation, about the work of the Christian Democratic Movement and to discuss collaboration with the ECPM. Although the city was blocked for some time because of the demonstrations against President Saakashvili, and the situation in Georgia was still tense, the CDM organized an impressive program to learn more about the beautiful country of Georgia, about the party and also about their local offices. In the first evening, I had dinner with the party leader of the CDM, George Targamadze, and with the Director of International Relations, George Rukhadze, (interesting: the Georges from Georgia) in a beautiful setting, overlooking the beautiful skyline of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. When you see the skyline, you notice two things. First, that T...

On 20th April, Easter Monday, I left Romania again for an exciting new trip. Last time I wrote about the impressions of Armenia. This is the second report, as intermezzo before giving my impressions of the trip to Georgia. My plane landed, after a short flight, in Tblisi. The difference between the international airports of Armenia and Georgia is interesting. The airport in Yerevan is small, has a real round shape, but the messages were not announced in English. I had to concentrate to hear if something about Tblisi was mentioned. The Tblisi airport seemed much grander and more according to international standards, with announcements also in English but with a very strict security! I had to wait a very long time for our luggage. Also there were billboards telling that if your luggage had a yellow sticker, then you should go directly to the customs and security!. The thorns of the rose revolution in Georgia It was clear for me that the situation in Georgia was still tense and dif...