On Saturday, November 22nd, for the third time Belgrade Regional Conference by „European Students for Liberty“ was organized, partnered with Libek. As in previous years, Belgrade Conference was the largest Regional Conference of „European Students for Liberty“ in Europe – this year alone around 300 participants were present.
Conference was held at the Faculty of Law University of Belgrade, and first speaker was Frank Karsten from Dutch Mises Institute. Karsten presented the biggest problems that democracy entails, offering an alternative in smaller communities that compete with each other: „Switzerland is not a success due to direct democracy. It is successful for its competition between cantons“. Karsten authored the book „Beyond Democracy“.
At the media panel of the conference speakers were Slobodan Georgiev from BIRN, Branko Čečen from CINS and Srećko Šekeljić, blogger, activist and co-founder of Balkanist Magazine. Speaking about media liberties, Georgiev gave his opinion on the cause of problems: „State is omnipresent in the media sphere. State is the biggest media tycoon“. Branko Čečen stressed the need to fight constantly, both for media and other liberties. „There is something within these people that makes people fight. Freedom wasn’t given to us. We took it from Milošević“, said Čečen. Srećko Šekeljić explained the role of internet in times of pressures on media: „Internet is an unregulated area and probably will never be regulated. It is a fertile soil for free speech, although even on it, especially on web portals of classic media, there is (auto)censorship. This panel was moderated by PR Manager at Libek, Nikola Parun.
After this panel there were four paralel „break-out“ sessions. Mihailo Gajić, Program Director of Research Department at Libek spoke about efficiency of public sector, professor Branko Radulović from Faculty of Law about privatization, Milan Ćirković held a lecture on scientific method and most common misconceptions, and on the fourth session about founding of student organizations and rise of extremism in Serbia spoke Ana Jakšić from „Students for Liberty – Faculty of Philosophy“, Petar Donić from „Students for Liberty – School of Electrical Engineering“ and Ivana Vraneš from „Students of Liberty – Faculty of Dramatic Arts“.
Fourth part of the conference was reserved for the subject of open borders, about which spoke Yael Ossowski from „European Students for Liberty“, stressing the existence of obstacles to freedom that exist still today. „European countries are not at war today, but our freedom of movement is still quite often under threat“, said Ossowski.
Final panel dealt with legalization of marijuana in Serbia. Moderated by Ratko Nikolić, Regional Coordinator for the Balkans of „European Students of Liberty“, jurist Rastko Petaković, International Outreach Director at Libek Aleksandar Kokotović and artist Srđan Ćešić agreed that Serbia should legalize marijuana, and should do it now. Petaković explained that marijuana was banned as late as 20. century, due to belief that it led to increase in crime rates and decrease in productivity. „My view is that those beliefs are wrong, that marijuana should be legal and that this is a matter of individual choice and freedom to choose“, said Petaković. Aleksandar Kokotović gave example of the state of Colorado where production, distribution and sale of marijuana was recently legalized, as an experiment that led to decrease in crime. On this, creatively, leaned on Srđan Ćešić: „Organized and controlled growth and distribution surely lead to withering of an entire branch of crime that causes thousands of lives lost. Also, controlling quality and distribution of these products would demistify the use of cannabis, and consuming of marijuana would cease to be a specific expression of teen insurgency in a system in which cannabis can be recieved with a health card or ID“. Panelists concluded that a wave of legalization of marijuana was released in Europe and that it would be a good thing if Serbia would join the ride.