EU Awareness Centre at the Paneuropa Conference “For a Strong Europe” in Vienna
The Chairman of the EU Awareness Centre, Ambassador David Dondua, took part in the Paneuropa Conference “For a Strong Europe”, held in Vienna from 1-4 October 2026. The conference marked one hundred years since the first Paneuropean Congress, held in Vienna in 1926.
On 3 October, David Dondua spoke on the panel “The EU’s Eastern Border and Future Relations with Russia”, alongside Juraj Mesik (Slovakia), Oleksandr Aliksiychuk (Member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine) and Tigran Khzmalyan (Paneuropa Armenia). Andrej Lepavcov, President of Paneuropa Macedonia, moderated.
Recalling that Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi launched the Pan-Europa movement from Vienna a century ago, he described Europe’s eastern border as a political, moral and security frontier that runs today through Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia. He called on Europe to treat these countries as co-authors of its future order and to see support for them as an investment in its own security, not an act of generosity. Using Georgia as a case study, he showed how Russia’s cognitive and political warfare can push a European-oriented country off its course without a single soldier crossing the border. On future relations with Russia, he called for “containment with engagement”: security for Europe’s eastern neighbours first, and no normalisation without real change in Moscow. He concluded that Europe’s relationship with Russia will be decided not by a diplomatic communiqué but on its eastern frontier and on Ukraine’s frontline.
On behalf of the EU Awareness Centre, David Dondua also joined the “Vienna Declaration for a Strong Europe”, which was adopted at the conference. The Declaration calls for a geopolitical Europe with a common foreign, security and defence policy. It treats enlargement as an instrument of that policy, including a clear European strategy to integrate Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Moldova and to protect them from threats from Moscow. It also sets out measures to end Russia’s war against Ukraine and restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Paneuropa intends the Declaration to guide its work in the coming years, and it will be published in the Paneuropa magazine.
The EU Awareness Centre thanks Paneuropa Austria and its President, Rainhard Kloucek, for the kind invitation and for organising this important conference.
