September 9-12, 2021, Czech Republic

It was a great pleasure for Aspen Institute Romania to support the organization of the fifth annual edition of the Aspen Seminar for Young European Leaders, which took place in the Czech Republic between 9 and 12 of September, having the Aspen Institute Central Europe as main host.

A joint yearly effort of 2 European Aspen Institutes, the Seminar is held under the umbrella of the Aspen Initiative for Europe and brings together a varied group of young European leaders, led by the common goal of exploring shared values.

This edition of the Seminar engaged a wonderful group of 24 young leaders from 16 European countries and the USA. We were proud to have among the participants three Aspen Institute Romania Fellows, who brought valuable contributions to the conversations at the Seminar table: Timea Lapsanszki (Aspen Fellow 2019), Daniel Duma (Aspen Fellow 2015) and Natanail Stefanov (Aspen Fellow 2019).

The Seminar was moderated by Leigh Hafrey, senior lecturer in the Behavioral and Policy Sciences at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and Ruth Girardet, Member of the Board, Open University, London, who sparked enriching discussions about values, post-pandemic Europe, the future and our role in it.

This year’s edition was entitled “Post-Pandemic, a Paradigm Shift on/in Europe?” and included 6 sessions based on texts from authors such as Ivan Krastev, Arundathi Roy, Vaclav Havel, Maria Draghi, Karel Čapek, Slavenka Drakulic, Ernest Renan and many others.

Special thanks to President Ivan Hodáč, Executive Director Milan Vašina, Kateřina Polanská and Pavla Losová (Program Managers) from the Aspen Institute Central Europe, for their wonderful cooperation and hospitality.

We are honored to have partnered with Aspen Institute CE and are looking forward to be the main host of the 2022 edition of the Seminar.