The article titled “Time For a Nahost – Politik” written by Eastern Mediterranean University Cyprus Policy Center Research Assistant Derviş Şahin has featured amongst the top 20 inspirational ideas at the McKinsey Awards.
The results of the awards that aim to restart sustainable growth of the European Union (EU) and to help build a bridge between the European people and institutions were revealed in October. The articles submitted aimed to find solutions relating to the implementation of pro-growth strategies in Europe, involving voters as well as policy makers.
In his article, Devrim Şahin argued that the EU must abandon current expansion strategies based on the centre-periphery model and switch to a decentralizing model. Şahin also noted the requirement for a mechanism that will speed up the formation of direct relationships between candidate countries and democratic social forces. Noting that expansion strategies allowing the harmony of candidate country citizens and European citizens should be sped-up by education systems that are comprised of not a one-sided perspective but rather a multilateral perspective, Şahin stated that a new doctrine similar to the Ost-Politik expansion of Federal Germany, during the Cold War period is required.