An international interdisciplinary conference European Values and Identity was held at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University on June 16. TSU Rector, Academician Vladimer Papava; EU Ambassador to Georgia Philip Dimitrov; French Ambassador to Georgia Renaud Salins; representatives of international organizations; foreign-based Georgian scientists; academic staff and students attended the conference. The event was co-organized by TSU Professor Nana Guntsadze and President of the Georgian Community in France, Otar Zurabishvili.
TSU Rector Vladimer Papava said that “Georgia’s European orientation was determined long ago; it is Georgian people’s inner aspiration. Quite soon Georgia will sign the Association Agreement with the European Union and against this background TSU hosts a large international conference today which aims at analyzing how the European state of Georgia should look like; what are the key values; how its economy, development, security and cultural issues should be transformed in order to be established as a developed European-style state. The engagement of our academic staff and students is a guarantee that together with foreign partners this conference will prove successful.”
“The conference topic is European values. It is already a tradition to hold conferences on this issue at TSU. This event demonstrates how intensively Georgian professors are involved in these issues and I think that this is a good idea,” EU Ambassador to Georgia Philip Dimitrov said.
French Ambassador to Georgia Renaud Salins said that most recent debates focused on national identity and European values. “In my opinion, the key goal of this conference is to study this issue and show that there is compliance between Georgian identity and European values. Just therefore, European and Georgian professors are participating in the conference; they will exchange ideas, discuss this issue and I think that it will be useful for Georgia,” Ambassador Salins said.
“The primary goal of the conference is to spread European values in Georgia as much as possible. The society needs it and that is why we decided to organize this conference. We should try to introduce European values through maintaining Georgia’s identity. Therefore, we deemed it necessary to hold an interdisciplinary conference at TSU,” TSU Professor Nana Guntsadze said.
President of the Georgian Community in France, Otar Zurabishvili awarded the Ekvtime Takaishvili Scholarship to Natia Pailodze, student of the TSU Faculty of Humanities.
The international interdisciplinary conference European Values and Identity aimed at promoting the dissemination of European values and discussing these values in the context of national identity. The topics discussed during the conference will promote increasing of public awareness in Georgia and will enable Georgian society to make an informed choice about Europe.
The conference was organized by the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (Francophone University Agency), EU, Association Georgia Proeuropa and Georgian Community in France.
