2015 European Students For Liberty Conference

Announcing the 2015 European Students For Liberty Conference in Berlin!

 Meet Danish Journalist and Mohammad cartoon publisher Flemming Rose, MEP Daniel Hannan, Russian Oppositional Vera Kichanova, former German Bundestag member Frank Schäffler, and social entrepreneur Christopher Catrambone at #ESFLC15!

Berlin, Germany  —  Aiming to make their presence known in the capital of Germany, the grassroots student-driven organization European Students For Liberty is holding its 4th annual conference at Humboldt University on the 10-12th of April, 2015.

The conference will feature three intense days of speeches, debates, panel sessions and networking which will bring together hundreds of liberty advocates in the spirit of promoting a free society in Europe and across the world.

It is expected to be the largest pro-liberty conference in all of Europe, uniting students and young people with a keen interest in the fundamentals of liberty. More than 700 students are expected to make their way to Berlin from over 45 different countries across the world, each paying their own way to be present alongside their fellow activists.

Headlining the event will be journalist Flemming Rose, original publisher of the Danish Mohammad cartoons, and Member of European Parliament Daniel Hannan of the British Conservative Party, as well as Christopher Catrambone, CEO of Tangier Group and founder of Migrant Offshore Aid Station (moas.eu), an NGO dedicated to saving lives at sea using a 40-metre boat called Phoenix.

The other keynote speeches will be given by Tom Palmer, vice president of the Atlas Network, former German Bundestag member and Frei Democratic Party representative Frank Schäffler, and Nico Sell, CEO of Wickr, a free messaging app enabling anyone to send top-secret messages that self-destruct, the official messaging app of #ESFLC15.

Joining them will be 30 other speakers from a variety of backgrounds, professions, and countries, each with their own perspective on how to achieve a freer, more prosperous society and to actively encourage young people to make these changes possible.

The theme this year will be that of “Open Borders,” recognizing that this generation of young people in Europe can be counted amongst one of the freest generations in the history of the world.

The fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago united east and west and ushered in a great number of freedoms now enjoyed by millions of people in the former Soviet bloc. Thankfully, that wall which symbolized the harshest of borders and one of the most repressive economic systems ever imagined has been eliminated, along with all the terrible ideas which were its glue for so long.

A paper by the University of Wisconsin’s John Kennan finds that lifting migratory restrictions would have significant economic benefits as well, more than doubling the income of newly arrived immigrants and providing a significant boon to domestic economies.

That’s what drives so many pro-liberty student activists to advocate for the idea of open borders. They advocate for the idea that borders, created and enforced by man, are not the only means through which we can proclaim identity and meaning, certainly not if it means stripping so many people of their dignity and denying them opportunity. They advocate for the idea that we can become richer and more prosperous by opening our borders and allowing access to our markets.

Open borders means free movement of people and free trade. There is no more humane position than allowing people to freely cross borders to improve their situation and to vote with their feet. It is the position that most favors individual liberty and deserves our support. This will be the underlying theme of the 2015 European Students For Liberty Conference in Berlin, Germany.

Platinum Sponsors for the event are The Atlas Network and Saxo Bank.

The conference’s Gold Sponsors are Imperial Tobacco, Friedrich A. von Hayek-Gesellschaft, Ayn Rand Institute, and the Cato Institute. The Silver Sponsors are the Institute of Economic Affairs, Liberales Institut, energ.my, Prometheus Institute, and the Institute for Economics Studies-Europe. Bronze Sponsors for the ESFLC will be the Acton Institute, Business and Information Technology School Berlin, and the International Alliance of Libertarian Parties.

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European Students For Liberty is the first major international development of Students For Liberty. ESFL exists to provide support for pro-liberty students and student groups in Europe and empower the next generation of leaders in the global liberty movement.

At present, ESFL boasts an expansive network of over 260 groups across the European continent, and just completed 16 regional conferences in major European cities in the fall of 2014, in addition to the first-ever ESFL Ukraine Summit in Kiev, with over 540 attendees, and the National ESFL Conference in Athens, Greece with over 220 participants.

ESFL’s activities help students generate the skills, momentum, and connections necessary to effectively advance the pro-liberty movement within Europe and abroad.

For information, visit esflc.org.