Three students from the Faculty of Political Sciences have been awarded prizes today for the three best student papers on the European Union, granted to them by the Acting Director of the European Integration Office of the Republic of Serbia Ksenija Milenković.
The paper “The process of aligning with the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union: what are the challenges the RS is facing?“, written by Jovana Perić, a student of master studies, who was awarded RSD 85,000. The second prize in the amount of RSD 55,000 was awarded to Stefan Šparavalo, a student of the fourth year of undergraduate studies for the paper “Religion as an integral part of European identity: ideas, legal background and contemporary challenges”, while the third prize was awarded for the paper “The European Union in two speeds and potential implications for the European path of Serbia?” written by Uroš Đaković, a student of master studies, in the amount of RSD 35,000.
Ksenija Milenković thanked all students for their participation in the contest and congratulated the awarded students, wishing them a lot of success in their future academic work.
“The Office launched this contest to encourage young academics to engage in reasoned debate, not only in connection with the membership of our country in the European Union, but also in relation to the EU in a global context. We hope that through this pioneering initiative we have somewhat come closer to our goal of raising awareness among young people about how significant it is to reflect on important socio-political issues from the perspective of science”, stated Ksenija Milenković during the award ceremony.
The winner of the first prize, Jovana Perić, expressed her gratitude to the Office for the award, noting that the entire society can benefit from the insight that young and educated people have to offer, thus giving a great impetus to further social debate.
“I applied to the contest for several reasons, but the main ones were the opportunity to further explore topics that I am particularly interested in and the possibility of publishing and disseminating ideas and conclusions that I came up with. The foreign policy of Serbia, and therefore the Euro-integration process of our country, are at the centre of my interests”, explained the winner, Jovana Perić.
The winner of the second prize Stefan Šparavalo thanked the jury for recognising the importance of the topic he is dealing with, but to which insufficient attention is being devoted in our environment, and also welcomed the initiative of the Office.
“The essential feature of a healthy and vibrant democracy is dialogue and I think that it is really significant when a government body in this manner encourages reflection and expression of youth on such an important subject. I hope that the other institutions will also recognise the good practice of the European Integration Office and encourage scientific research among future academics”, said Stefan Šparavalo.
Third place award winner Uroš Đaković stressed that some of the main fields of his interest are the foreign policy of Serbia and the process of European integration.
“I applied to the contest organised by the Office to use the opportunity to deal with the topic of the European Union in two speeds, which is of particular interest to me, but also because of the possibility that my work may be published, which would be a great honour for me”, explained Uroš Đaković.
The decision on the three first ranked papers was adopted by a contest committee composed of: Prof. Dragica Vujadinović, PhD, Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, Prof. Vesna Knežević Predić, PhD, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, Prof. Ildiko Erdei, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade.
After reading and evaluating all of the papers, the contest committee highlighted that the works received for the contest were generally considered to be at a satisfactory academic level, that the approach towards the topics was interesting and that the texts were original. Professors of the University of Belgrade, also members of the committee, agreed with the assessment that the contest for the three best student papers in the fields of European integration and the Republic of Serbia’s accession process to the EU is an important initiative of the European Integration Office, which contributes not only to more complex and sophisticated reflection on the EU, together with all the processes and transformations that Serbia's integration means to this community, but also to raising awareness among students about the significance of academic writing and the manner of approaching topics that are of essential importance for the whole society.
An expert committee adopted a decision that all the papers that had more than 90 points should be published in the first collection of works of the European Integration Office, which we will publish in the coming years, with the desire and aim to broaden and deepen the debate on the EU and provide young people with the opportunity to contribute to the process of European integration, both on the theoretical and practical level.
