中欧社会论坛 - China Europa ForumThe prime movers’ meeting 2009
The meeting of the Chinese and European prime movers of the China-Europa Forum. July 22 - 24, 2009 is a decisive step
The meeting of the prime movers aims at better knowing each other, deepening the working methods and implementing an action plan for the period July 2009 - July 2010
The preparation of its third biennial meeting called for a profound transformation of the Forum: becoming a collectively designed and steered dynamic where each workshop results from a common desire in China and in Europe and has its own autonomous dynamic. The unity of the Forum is ensured by the respect by all workshops of the ethics and common working methods, by the use of a common website and by the plenary sessions. Since early 2008, this change has guided all our actions. Thus three meetings have been organized in Europe, London, Barcelona and Saarbrucken in the Fall 2008 and two meetings in China, Guangzhou and Beijing in February-March 2009, which gave to Europeans and Chinese the opportunity to make proposals for dialogue. The next important step was to create with all the prime movers identified on both sides for the workshops a real collective working group.
And this has been achieved with the meeting held at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris from July 22 to 24. It was organized in record time, in response to the inability to hold the Forum as expected in China at that time because of the foreseeable swine flu pandemic.
The Euro-Chinese organizing team of the Forum has turned the crisis into an opportunity: 250 participants, Chinese and European representing 60 workshops, met in Paris, thanks to the decisive support of the Embassy of France in Beijing. The work was intense and friendly. Focused on the preparation of workshops, the session also allowed everyone to really get familiar with the tools and methods of collective work. The quality of the dialogue, the clarity of the action plans, the richness of the interpersonal bonds established, the friendly place: everything contributed to make the meeting a milestone in the collective steering of this unique adventure of society-to-society dialogue.