Forum Event

When? Monday 22nd July 2013, 18:00
Where? University of Zurich

Delegates can sign up here to select their discussion group.

What is it all about?
The session theme is “Global Europe – Working towards Sustainable Economies”. In order for you to gain further expertise on your own topic as well as others, an element of the programme will be the Forum Event: During one evening you have the chance to discuss with experts and investigate the different aspects of the session topic in a chaired but open discussion.

What is the detailed programme of the Forum Event?
Every expert will discuss their topic subsequently with three different groups – that way the groups will have the opportunity to attend several discussions. After being introduced by a chairperson, the expert will hold a short presentation as an entry into the discussion. The chairperson will then start the discussion and subsequently open the floor for the delegates – the aim being an interactive discussion format between you, the chairperson and the expert. Each round of discussion lasts 45 minutes in total.

The detailed programme is as follows:

17:20 – 17:50 Introduction of the experts in the Aula

17:50 – 18:00 Transfer to the seminar rooms

18:00 – 18:45 1st discussion

18:45 – 19:00 Break, change of expert

19:00 – 19:45 2nd discussion

19:45 – 20:45 Break, dinner and change of expert

20:45 – 21:30 3rd discussion

21:30 – 21:40 Transfer to tram stop

You task is to choose one of the following three “packages”. The experts and chairs rotate between the groups.
Group 1

a. Environmental sustainability: Coexistance of GMP and traditional
agriculture – a sustainable model?
Famines vs. ecological catastrophies – this discussion aims at assessing the chances and risks of GMPs and of evaluating models suggesting a mixed model of agriculture. (Expert: Stefan Kohler, lawyer, biologist and member of the Swiss Forum for Genetic Research)

b. Social Sustainability: How can civil society and the economy provide each other with mutual support? This topic leads to a lot of subsequent questions – are society and the economy co-workers or antagonists? Where are the problems? How could they be tackled? Which socio-economic models are most promising? (Expert: Yevhen Poltenko, Ukraininan Open Hearts Foundation)

c. Economic Sustainability: Swiss Banking in an area of tax transparency. With recent attempts to fight tax evasion, new regulations and policies are going to affect the banking sector. Which importance will concepts like banking privacy or automatic information exchange have for the future development of this economic sector? (Expert: Sindy Schmiegel, Swiss Bankers’ Association)

Group 2

a. Ecological Sustainability: Energy efficiency, climate change and
participants travelling to a session about sustainability by plane: Why is changing one’s lifestyle in terms of ecological sustainability so difficult? Energy-saving light bulbs, heating less, flying less, buying regionally- produced food: The means to protect the climate are various. However, changing our lifestyle has proven to be more difficult than expected – which is where energy efficiency comes in: Which models exist in order to keep up our standard of living while reducing the amount of energy we need? (Expert: Marco Pfister, Greenpeace)

b. Social Sustainability: Gender quotas – sugarcoating or a step towards equality?
On the question whether gender equality requires measures imposed by the state – and also whether gender equality nowadays should only focus on women’s rights or whether other areas should not be neglected. (Expert: Doris Stump, former national councillor and member of the Council of Europe, manager of eFeF publishers)

c. Economical Sustainability: The bottleneck – which are the qualifications needed in Euroope’s labour market in times of unprecedented unemployment rates? Indignados all over Europe – the topic of this discussion will be the apparent gap between the expectations of employers and the qualifications of the (young) unemployed. (Expert: James Mandl, Education First)

Group 3

a. Ecological Sustainability: Climate politics on an international level.
Final and comprehensive climate protection agreements have still not been negotiated or implemented. How could the deadlock be tackled? (Expert: N.N.)

b. Social Sustainability: Representative politics – where is the boundary between stakeholdership and lobbyism? While politicians need to represent the interests of their electorate and the economy of their region, they should also keep in mind the common good – how could this conflict be solved? (Expert: Delphine Centlivers, chief executive of Transparency International Switzerland)

c. Economical Sustainability: Doing good with patented medicines – how to provide access to essential medicines while safeguarding innovation? Learning from past successes: HIV retroviral therapies have become accessible for most people – even in developing countries. Which alternative patenting models offering affordable access to medicines while ensuring adequate profit for further research and development are promising?

We will try to respect your preferences whenever possible. You will receive your definite confirmation at check-in on 19th July.

Delegates can sign up here to select their discussion group.

How should I prepare for the Forum Event?
Most of the Forum Event topics are related to a committee topic of the session – you hence most probably have prepared them to some extent for the plenary discussion during General Assembly. However, keep in mind that it is very much up to you how the discussions are going to turn out, i.e. whether the interaction between you and the expert is going to be a challenging and enriching exchange of opinions or whether it is going to be slightly quiet hour of questions and answers. We suggest you prepare as following:
• We gave our experts the opportunity of a “carte blanche” – they could summarise their personal opinion and their expectations towards the discussion in a short written statement. You will receive the respective position statements of your group at check-in on 19 July in written form, but you can also have a look at www.iszurich2013.ch where they will soon be available as well. Try to find out where our experts mention possible areas of conflict and discussion.
• Think about what stances our experts have – they do not need to be neutral but mostly represent certain interest groups. A quick online research about the organisation they represent might give you useful insights.
• Take down at least five questions for each expert – they will be a helpful for you to contribute to the discussion