Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me welcome you at the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of AMO; I am very pleased to see that you care about us and that you are here with us today.
I would like to, at the beginning of my speech, pay attention to what AMO means today, since I believe there are people here tonight who have either worked at or cooperated with AMO at various stages of its existence, and will thus appreciate some up-to-date information.

The most important thing we do, and which we have, in fact, always done and will continue doing, is education and research in the field of international relations. The educational segment of our activities is inherently connected with the Prague Student Summit, which was, over the 22 years, attended by more than 5,500 students of secondary, high, and primary schools in the Czech Republic. As many of you know, the Summit not only opens the doors to diplomacy, but also cultivates civic competences and critical thinking, and thus empowers young people with love for democracy and a sense of responsibility for themselves as well as their environs.

AMO Research Center plays the role of a foreign policy think tank, which focuses mainly on Czech foreign policy and formulates what it should look like. You are most certainly familiar with a number of our expert outputs, participated in a debate or a conference that we held, or you have seen some of our analysts on TV. The Prague Student Summit as well as the Research Center – both major AMO initiatives – are complementing each other and we are very pleased that they can work together under one roof.

Nowadays, however, AMO has a much wider agenda. For the past eleven years, we have been working in the EU neighborhood, especially in Ukraine and Belarus, where we support the development of civil society and share our experience of the Czech transformation. We have been successful in organizing the Czech-German Young Professionals Program as well as in other activities, linking different fields and opinions.

People usually like to hear some numbers – and you can believe me when I say that AMO truly is a membership organization. There are currently 109 individual members in our ranks and our work would not be possible without more than 60 volunteers. We collaborate with more than 20 experts on our research projects. The operation of the entire organization and the project coordination is run by about 10 people. Among them, besides me, are the Research Director Vít Dostál and the Coordinator of our Ukrainian projects Zdenka Vágnerová. All three of us have been with AMO for more than 10 years. We implement more than 30 different projects every year, with a budget of around 13 million Czech crowns.

When I sum it all up, I cannot help myself but think that even though our permanent goal is further development, together with strengthening our reputation, improving quality, and thus also the necessity of more and more successful fundraising, the biggest challenge in the years to come shall be to maintain all we have achieved thus far while keeping our own identity in the public space.

There are dilemmas we will have to face in the future and I would like to take this opportunity to share them with you.

In the Czech Republic, similarly as elsewhere in Europe and overseas, we are witnessing growing distrust of democracy as the best form of government. I feel that this fact – in the light of the 20 years during which has AMO been trying to achieve the exact opposite – is particularly painful and alarming. I would be very pleased to be able to say in the future that we, as an organization, are now doing our best to reflect and point out populism, nationalism, and extremism in our society, in order to prevent their dominance.

That also relates to the fact that we are to face a great debate in which we will have to defend our work in front of the general public. NGOs have reached a position, where many people feel that their interests are not being promoted. It is up to us to convince them of the contrary.

One of the possible ways we can try doing so, and which we have already been doing lately, is to widen our presence outside of Prague. This means participating in as well as organizing public debates, or educational programs in regions. It is thanks to the tradition of the Prague Student Summit that we are able to maintain a regular contact with more than 400 schools in the Czech Republic. Yet, I believe that this number also needs to be increased and that attention needs to be paid mainly to the schools in the peripheral areas where there is biggest support of radical political solutions.

However, it is not our long-term goal to become an activist NGO that would further polarize the public. Our goal is to succeed in working as we have worked so far. That is mainly through patient explanations, broadening horizons, tolerance, provide of professional background, and support of the ability of each one of us to form our own opinions.

Other questions we seek the answers for are mainly of an internal character. We need to bring together even more professionals – professionals and enthusiasts – who would have different life experience and work history to enrich our work as well as our mindsets. Today, AMO is bringing together several generations of members. The membership must, at all times, remain beneficial to each and every one of our members. I believe that the most important thing for us is to remain a community of friends who enjoy meeting outside of the work, too, and who are proud to claim their membership in AMO. Seeing you all here, I believe we have foundation we can build on.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, I would like to thank you very much for all your support and all that you have been doing for AMO. Our organization would never be able to celebrate this extraordinary anniversary and be as it is if it were not for you.

I wish you a lovely evening.