Prof. João Carlos Espada is the founder and director of the Institute for Political Studies at the Catholic University of Portugal. From January 2011, he has held the Bronislaw Geremek European Civilisation Department Chair at the College of Europe in Natolin, Warsaw. Prof. Espada supported Poland’s democratic opposition since the 1980s by actively promoting the Solidarity ideal and the role of intellectual elites in the transition process: organizing conferences, writing articles and editing the “Solidarność” magazine. For 16 years now he has been organizing a series of conferences in Portugal – “International Annual Meeting in Political Studies” – at which one of the sessions is always devoted to Poland. In 2003, he was a proponent of awarding an Honorary Doctorate to Prof. Bronisław Geremek, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland and co-founder of the Community of Democracies.

The ceremony was held in the Permanent Secretariat of the Community of Democracies, an international organization with its seat in Warsaw. The CD’s aim is to strengthen and promote democratic ideas worldwide. On the same day, the Permanent Secretariat hosted the second – and Poland’s first – meeting of the Community of Democracies’ Executive Committee. Poland actively participates in the Community’s operations. It is a founding member of the CD, a member of the Governing Council and Executive Committee and co-chairs, together with Mongolia, the Working Group on Education for Democracy. The ceremony was held on the first anniversary of the Arab Spring. After the Bene Merito award ceremony, democratic activists from Cuba, Egypt, Belarus and Syria took the floor.

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