ECPR (The European Consortium for Political Research), that has celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020, is the leading scholarly society for political scientists in Europe that through its events, publications and research groups, foster scholarly collaboration across borders. ECPR organizes many events, but the general conference, alongside ECPR’s joint sessions, is considered as the key event in the agendas of most political scientists in Europe.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis the 2020 ECPR General Conference successfully transitioned from a planned live event at the University of Innsbruck into the virtual conference. The organizers made the online conference the best they could, scheduling a programme that could fit different time zones and devising an excellent website for the general conference with friendly and helpful interface. The programme has been rich as always at the ECPR general conferences consisting of 43 sections with 443 panels and 1804 papers, several roundtables, exhibitions, and discussions with top editors, but also regular meetings of the ECPR Standing Groups. Finally, the virtual conference also included interesting social program such as floor, standing and seating exercises before each conference’s day, and recipes for ice scream and other delights at the end of conference.
The presentation of the MIGREC member was part of the Section International Migration Policies and Politics: Current Challenges and Opportunities, supported by the ECPR Standing Group on Migration and Ethnicity, and was realized on the panel “Transnational Social Protection: Countries’ Policies and Migrants’ Practices in the EU”, held on 27/8/2020, 13:30 – 15:15 (BST), using the Zoom meeting platform. Biljana Đorđević presented results of her study about lack of integration policy in Serbia and the need for translation of the so-called progressive dilemma (bounded solidarity v. diversity) into a different context of a transit/transitional country such as Serbia. The panel included 4 paper presentations, and had two panel discussants. It provided an tremendous opportunity for exchange of research results and ideas, as well as different disciplinary perspectives such as the ones coming from political theory and social policy.
The next day, on 28/8/2020 MIGREC team members Biljana Đorđević and Panagiotis Paschalidis, altogether with Zoran Drangovski from the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association, took part in an online debate on “Refugee protection in the context of mixed migration – Movements in the Western Balkans” which was a closing event of the Summer School on Refugee Rights and Migration with a special focus on the Challenges in times of COVID-19 Pandemic organized by Center for refugee law and migration at the Iustinianus Primus Law Faculty, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius-Skopje in collaboration with the UNHCR Mission in Skopje, and in partnership with the International Institute of Humanitarian Law – Sanremo, Italy. The debate took place
on 13:30 – 15:30 (CET), using the Zoom meeting platform. Panagiotis presented the situation in Greece, Zoran in North Macedonia and Biljana presented the situation in Serbia, thus covering significant part of the Balkan migration route. The debate has been followed by a Q & A from the summer school participants and lecturers. It was a great opportunity to promote MIGREC project and team members’ cooperation.