Fourteen participants from Germany and the Czech Republic have been invited to participate in the annual series of workshops and to collaborate on relevant economic, political, and social issues. This year’s topic is Ways out of the crisis. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the seminar took place between April 29 and May 2, 2021, online.
An introductory round and an internal workshop opened the program on Thursday, April 29, 2021.
On Friday, CGYPP participants got an opportunity to debate with Libor Grubhoffer from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences role of science and vaccination as one of the solutions to this crises. During the online public event organized within the program, participants and the public discussed with political scientist Jiří Pehe which impact does the ongoing COVID 19 pandemics have on politics in Central Europe. Tomáš Samek (from the Faculty of Education of Charles University) focused on the role of Czech and German public media in crises during the afternoon session. Czech journalist David Klimeš explained the specificity of the Czech way through and out of the pandemic from his perspective.
Saturday was the day of fact-finding missions. Participants were asked to choose from three interviews with interesting personalities. Starting from Martina Červeňová (Hospital of the Merciful Brothers, Brno), talking about her experience as a young doctor inside the COVID ICU. The second possible dialogue partner was Veronika Víchová, from the European Values Center for Security Policy, who talked about the COVID-19 related disinformation campaigns. Finally, Jiří Kůs, chair of the Czech Nanotechnology Industries Association, shared his insight on the Czech innovations that could help in the fight against the pandemic. In the evening Martina Špinková, founder of Hospice Association “Cesta domů” discussed with participants how to cope with the loss of a loved one, which is a situation that many families are currently facing.
The last day of the seminar closed the online meeting with feedback and wrap up session, where also next steps were discussed. The second CGYPP 2021 workshop will take place in Berlin in June.
The program is initiated and financed by the Czech-German Fund for the Future. The online seminar was organized with the support of the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, too.
