Online conference in 26 September 2025 ‘Cities and regions bypassing central governments?’
organizing by our Institute in collaboration with the
University of Brussels and the Paradiplomacy Laboratory of the University of Łódź.
Date: 26 September 2025 (Friday)
Program of the conference
Link:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetupjoin/
14.00-15.15 CET
Opening session
Welcome address: Jean-Michel de Waele (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Meet the Practitioners: Roundtable discussion with Benedek Jávor, head of Brussels
Liaison Office of Budapest and a former Member of the European Parliament, Michaela
Kauer, head of Brussels Liaison Office of Vienna, and Pietro Reviglio, policy and research
advisor at Eurocities (TBC)
moderator: Balázs Brucker (ELTE CERS Institute for Regional Studies)
14.00-15.15 CET
Panel 1: City diplomacy in action
(moderator: Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska, University of Lodz)
1. Joanna Modrzyńska (Nicolaus Copernicus University), The Pact of Free Cities: origins,
development, and current dynamics
2. Elif Menderes (Friedrich Naumann Stiftung); Mustafa Osman Turan (Foreign
Relations Advisor to the Mayor of Istanbul), City diplomacy as a normative tool against
democratic backsliding – the case of Istanbul
3. Balázs Brucker (ELTE CERS Institute for Regional Studies), Foreign strategy between
principles and pragmatism: the city diplomacy activities of Budapest under the leadership of the
opposition Mayor (2019–2025)
4. Fedor Zolotarev (University of Pécs), Strong ties become stronger, but pivot to the West:
analysis of Ukrainian city partnershipsCities and regions bypassing central governments?
15.30-16.30 CET
Panel 2: Paradiplomacy in contentious contexts
(moderator: Balázs Brucker, ELTE CERS Institute for Regional Studies)
1. Martin Christie (University of Ljubljana), The role of paradiplomatic actors during times
of geopolitical instability. The cases of Scotland and Flanders
2. Adem Beha (University of Prishtina), Subnational diplomacy in Kosovo – the role of cities
and culture under conditions of contested statehood
3. Szymon Ostrowski (Nicolaus Copernicus University), Tokyo and Senkaku Islands
dispute: study on role of city’s official in city bypassing the central government
16.45-17.45 CET
Panel 3: Urban and regional actors in climate diplomacy
(moderator: Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska, University of Lodz)
1. Sandrina Antunes, Ana Dias (University of Minho), Climate paradiplomacy after Paris:
A policy tool for subnational climate leadership
2. Marjolaine Lamontagne (McGill University), Charles Berthelet (Université du
Québec à Montréal & École des hautes études en sciences sociales), Surpassing the State? A
comparative analysis of the “contestation” paradiplomacy of Canadian and American
subnational governments in global climate governance
3. Kim Noach (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), How Tel Aviv-Yafo influences national
climate policy through urban diplomacy – the municipal boomerang pattern in action
18.00-19.15 CET
Panel 4: Global human rights and democracy debates in local governments
(moderator: Jean-Michel De Waele, Université Libre de Bruxelles)
1. Agnieszka Szpak (Nicolaus Copernicus University), Cities bypassing states in the areas of
human rights and environmental law
2. Brett Manzer (Laval University), American local government resolutions on the Israel-
Hamas war
3. Agata Rydzewska (University of Warsaw), Competing feminisms? Catalonia’s feminist
foreign policy and the challenge to Spain’s central authority
4. Bastian Loges (Technische Universität Braunschweig), Defenders of an order in crisis?
International city networks on LGBT+ rights and the contestation of liberal norms
19.15 CET
Closing remarks
Jean-Michel De Waele, Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska and Balázs Brucker
