From September 25-27, 2004, a group of 35 policy experts, young institute leaders and scholars met in Lake Bled, Slovenia to review the progress in “New” Europe to market economies after fifteen years of transition and to identify problems that inhibit productivity. The Centre for Research into Post Communist Economies (Great Britain) organized “Inhibited Transitions: Reasons and Remedies” with the help of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and the Enterprise Institute (Slovenia).
Atlas President Alex Chafuen gave a Laudatio to Atlas founder and former CRCE board member, Sir Antony Fisher, at the opening dinner, praising him as a champion not only of policy institutes, but also of ideas and values. Chafuen focused on Fisher’s core belief that moral confusion and fear are the main enemies to the free society. In his book, The Case for Freedom from 1948, the optimistic Fisher presaged the role of the free market in breaking down Communism: “We must stop being frightened of [the Soviet Union]. The best answer to her and all totalitarian states is to surround them with free markets.”
During the following two days, the conference participants reviewed and contrasted the transition experiences of the former Soviet satellite states and in particular those that joined the European Union in May 2004. Participants came from Great Britain, the United States, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, France, Serbia & Montenegro, Croatia, Austria, and Hungary. Vladimir Benacek and Alena Zemplinerova from the Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) presented a paper on “1989-2004 15 years of Transition – The End or Never-ending Story?”, which discussed the role of EU accession in transition, the desired end-state of transition and what influence the reform experiences of Central and Eastern European countries could have on Western Europe.
During the session on security and defence policies in transition economies, Andrej Miholic ( Institute for Civilization and Culture, Slovenia) analyzed past and current security threats in the transitional European states, while focusing mainly on terrorism and potential terrorist hotspots in Europe. Bernard Briscic ( Enterprise Institute, Slovenia) presented his views on small countries, including Slovenia, as security free-riders in NATO and suggested that these states need to provide their own protection and not rely on NATO alone. Session commentator John O’Sullivan, editor of National Interest Magazine (Washington, DC), noted that an American presence in Europe is a pre-requisite for stability in the region and that this stability helped create the European Union. Strong defence will rest up on intelligence, highly mobile forces, and the continued presence of NATO.
The final day focused on the interplay between formal and informal institutions and their impact on economic performance. Steve Pejovich presented the paper, “The Uneven Results of Institutional Changes in Central and Eastern Europe: The Role of Culture.”
Atlas President Alex Chafuen chaired the session on “Entrepreneurship, Technology & Innovation – the Magic Wands?,” which included papers from Dr. Marko Kos and Rado Pezdir (Institute for Civilization and Culture, Slovenia). Kos in “Competitiveness and Productivity of ACC: Possibilities of Fulfilment of Lisbon Goals” compared the trends in productivity, competitiveness, funds spent on research and development in the Latvia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovenia. Kos emphasized the importance of intellectual property rights to help spur innovation and promote research.
Pezdir’s remarks, “Thirteen Years After: Gradualism Turning Bad,” analyzed Slovenia’s economic policy throughout the transition period and its implications for further economic growth.
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