Round Table ” Academic Community and Media in Euroatlantic Integration Process”
Sarajevo, December 14th ( FENA)- Atlantic Initiative in B&H, Institute for Social Research of Faculty of Political Science (University of Sarajevo) and Alumni Association “George Marshall” Centre in B&H have organized a round table “Academic community and media in Euroatlantic integration process” in the facilities of Home Army Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. The participants of the round table were representatives of NATO Command in B&H, spokesmen of Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Security and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representatives of NGOs and media, and alumni’s of George Marshall Centre for European Security Studies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the preamble of the meeting, opened for media, the welcoming speeches were held by Brigadier General Errico Sabato, the commander of NATO in B&H, Minister of Defense Selmo Cikotic, and deputy manager of Administration for Foreign Programs of Marshall Centre, Ben Reed. Brigadier General Sabato invited Bosnian leaders to support and work on the Initiative, because B&H, despite the progress that it has made toward NATO and operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, needs to do a lot more to overcome its path toward Euroatlantic integrations. „Meetings like this round table are just another way of promoting B&H, where media and academic community have an important role in promoting Initiative, and it is very important that students take a bigger responsibility in reform processes, because they affect their future” said Sabato, and added that NATO without a doubt wants to see Bosnia and Herzegovina as a member of MAP and a member of NATO in the near future. The key actors of this meeting, which had a goal to actuate swap of ideas and experience about Euroatlantic integration of B&H and the region, are not only the political elite members and the states administration, but also other members of the society, among them very important members, media and academic community. In the first part of the round table discussion, closed for media, the spokesmen were Mladen Nakic (Atlantic Committee of Croatia), Savo Kentera (Euroatlantic Club of Montenegro), Lazar Elenovski (Euroatlantic Council of Macedonia) Vladimir Pevicevic (Faculty of Poltical Science, Belgrade), and Nerzuk Curak (Faculty of Political Science, Sarajevo). Minister of Defense Selmo Cikotic said that the round table is a first big event of Atlantic Initiative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has a goal of integrating B&H into Euroatlantic processes, and presents a good platform for integration of other state’s structures into European structures. He reminded that throughout history NATO had a tradition of good cooperation with B&H, „ since „No Fly” zone and the air attacks after the Srebrenica genocide”, and that it is very important to find a module for integrating all nations and neighbor states into NATO, to achieve stabilization and safety in the region. Ben Reed said that these types of meeting are according to the Marshal Centre spirit, and that great ideas demand more than initiative, but that it is important that initiatives receive all the support they need. 
