University of Belgrade Faculty of Law and the Belgrade office of the European Forum Alpbach (IG Alpbach Belgrade) that was established in 1945 in Innsbruck, found a common interest in organizing Alpbach Summer School on European Integration (ASSE). The aim of the summer school is impovement the knowledge of young lawyers, economists and political scientists from 10 countries of the region in the field of EU integration and regional cooperation.

ASSEI summer school was organized in the period from 10 to 21 September, according to the model and program of the Alpbach Summer School. The two-week program of summer school was attended by 32 students from the University of Ljubljana, Rijeka, Bijeljina, Podgorica, Skopje, Sofia, Bukurešt, Priština, Niš and Belgrade. Students had a chance to listen lectures by Prof. Dr. Friedl Weiss, Dr. Erhard Busek, Dr. Verona Ehold, Dr. Thomas Meyer, Dr. Tanja Mišćević, Dr. Jelica Minić, Mr. Vladimir Petrović, Mr. Tanasije Marinkovic and Milena Djordjević.

A progress in the EU integration process means a growing need for further education in this regard in SEE region. Also, there is a need for significant improvement of the cooperation between those countries. The project perceives regional cooperation and reconciliation as a precondition for EU integration. Recognizing this, ASSEI is built on two pillar-ideas:

1) to enhance the knowledge about history, law, socio-economic integration, policy areas and political systems of the European Union among students, graduates, postgraduates and young professionals coming from various fields such as law, economics, political sciences, technical sciences, linguistics etc;

2) to encourage and initiate cooperation between youth of those societies, many of which have a history of conflicts and wars. Variety of countries participants are coming from is an asset in this project. It will be used to initiate debates and discussions on topics such as post-conflict justice, prejudices and peace building. The project should develop a network of young, prosperous people, able to bring a European and regional perspectives to their environments.

Club Alpbach Belgrade and ASSEI are supported by: Central European Initiative, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Serbia, Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, European Funds for the Balkans, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and others.