Finland Times

 

File Photo Lehtikuva.

Helsinki will host the first two-day Euro-BRICS Summit of young leaders beginning on June 8, 2015, said a press release.

 

The event will bring together youth delegations from the EU, Brazil, China, India, South Africa, Russia and the candidate countries for accession to the EU and partner countries.

 

In addition to youth leaders, diplomatic session will be attended by members of parliament and ministries of Europe and BRICS.

 

Based in France, European Laboratory of Political Anticipation (LEAP) has initiated the event under the leadership of Marie-Helene Caillol.

 

Euro-BRICS project was launched in 2009 with an aim to expand the EU's cooperation with developing economies. Partners of Laboratory in Russia are MGIMO University and the BRICS research committee.

 

The idea of large-scale project has come to organizers now not by the chance. According to their concepts, there was a serious crisis which appeared in relations between Russia and the EU in 2014.

 

Marie-Helene Caillol believes that Russia is a bridge between Europe and BRICS.

 

"This event is extremely ambitious and somewhat historic. It intends to inaugurate a new way of making international relations in the globalised and internet-connected world,” Caillol says, adding that Euro-BRICS young leaders would prove in Helsinki on June 8-9 that they were worth this great effort.

 

The key speakers of the Summit are State Secretary of Portugal Bruno Masaesh, Ambassadors of India, Italy, Bulgaria and South Africa, members of the parliaments of European countries and representatives of ministries and major universities.

 

Diplomatic session consists of seven sections, which will run in parallel: Democracy, Peace, Mobility, Contemporary, Sustainability, Innovation and Multiculturalism.

 

General goals of the Summit are findings of the presentations and discussions on these topics that will provide the input for strategic recommendations to be forwarded to G20, BRICS and European decision makers and representatives.

 

After the business program in Finland, it is planned to visit St. Petersburg in the framework of the year of Russia's presidency in BRICS. 

 

In the northern capital, Europe and BRICS representatives will meet with the Governor of Leningrad region Alexander Drozdenko, visit city administration and take part in a roundtable in St. Petersburg State University.