Over 600 participants from Schools of political studies in 15 European countries will gather in Strasbourg from 2 to 6 July for the second Summer University for Democracy, organised by the Council of Europe. The Summer University is dedicated to the “Projects for Europe”. CoE Secretary General Terry Davis will open the event on Monday, July 2, at 09.30 in the Hemicycle of the European Parliament. Serbia’s President Boris Tadic is expected to give an opening lecture. Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg, Parliamentary Assembly Vice President Goran Lindblad and Philippe Richert, Vice-Chairman of the French Senate, count among speakers at the opening. The five-day session will include a series of themed conferences and workshops to be conducted by leading international personalities such as George Soros, Chairman of the Open Society Foundation; and Ivan Vejvoda, Executive Director of the Balkan Trust for Democracy. A final declaration will be adopted at the end of the ceremony. The final declaration will be adopted at the closing ceremony on Thursday, July 6. The four plenary sessions and thematic conferences are open to the press, as opposed to the workshops. The first school of Political Studies was opened in Moscow in 1992 in order to educate a new generation of political, economic, social and cultural representatives. Currently there are 15 schools open in Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Kosovo, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Armenia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania and Montenegro. This is the second time in a row for a delegation from Belarus to participate in this event. Since their foundation, each of these political studies Schools participated at the annual closing seminary in Strasbourg focused specifically on European institutions. In 2006, in order to strengthen the programme and the relations established between the participants, the closing seminars were compiled to create an event named the Summer School for Democracy, which took place on July 10-14 and was organised in partnership with the European Public Administration Pole (PEAP).