13th meeting of the Heads of State of the Countries of Central Europe
19th of May 2006
18-05-2006 15:44 |
THE 13th MEETING
The 13th meeting of the Presidents of the Central European States took place in Varna on the 19th of May on the invitation of Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.
13 Heads of State attended the meeting – the presidents of Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Slovenia.
Opening Address Delivered by President Georgi Parvanov at the opening of the Thirteenth Summit of Heads of State of Countries from Central Europe
The Presidents met for two plenary sessions dedicated to the Present and Future of Central Europe.
After the talks the Presidents headed to Varna’s Archaeological Museum where in their presence the Thracian Treasures Exhibition was unveiled. For the first time 9 treasures from six museums in Bulgaria made up one unique exposition. These came from the time of the Aeneolithic age until the dawning of the Roman Empire (4400 BC – 3rd Century A.D.) and included finds from the Varna Aeneolithic Necropolis, from the necropolis near the village of Dabene, Plovdiv, from the Valchitran Treasure, Pleven, from the necropolis near the village of Duvanli, Plovdiv, the tomb near Zlatnitza, the Rogozen Treasure, the Borovo Treasure, the Panagyurishte Treasure and the finds in Svilengrad.
Later in the day the Presidents had a traditional meeting with business representatives on the subject “Public-private partnership - a key to building and using the technical infrastructure in Central Europe”.
At the end of the day the Heads of State gave a joint press conference.
In the traditional for this forum meeting between the Presidents and business representatives that took part were Klaus Mangold, Chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, Wilhelm Bender, Chairman of the Board of Fraport, Peter-Rüdiger Puf, Director Corporate Economist of DaimlerChrysler AG, Friedrich Smaxwil, Vice President of Siemens AG Transportation Systems, Peter Tils, Chief Executive Officer for Central and Eastern Europe, Deutsche Bank, Pierre Daurès, Special Advisor, Bouygues Group, Erhard Busek, Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, Jiri Borovec, Vice-Chairman of the Board, ČEZ, Vladimir Schmalz, Director of Mergers & Acquisitions of CEZ, Aldo Fumagalli Romario, Chairman, SECI Business Advisory Council for Southeast Europe CEO & Managing Director of SOL, Hans-Joachim Körber, Chairman of the Board of METRO, Jean Lemierre, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Siegfried Wolf, Vice Chairman of MAGNA International Europe, Paolo Astaldi, Vice President of Astaldi, Regina Prehofer, Member of the Managing Board of Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Martin Frank, Executive Director of Bank Austria Creditanstalt , Fulvio Conti, Chief Executive Officer ENEL, Bojidar Bojinov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bojidar Danev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Association, Liubomir Velkov, Chief Executive Director of the National Electric Company, Kiril Gegov, Chief Executive Director of BULGARGAZ, Dimitar Gaydarov, General Director of the National Railway Infrastructure Company, Simeon Peshov, President of GLAVBOLGARSTROY AND Krassimir Ganchev
CEO PROWAVE.
Specially invited for the meeting by the President were the President of Lithuania, the Bulgarian Prime-Minister Sergei Stanishev, the Bulgarian Vice-Prime-Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivaylo Kalfin and the Bulgarian Minister of Economy and Energy Rumen Ovcharov.
The President’s Spouses visited the village of Chukurovo and the ethnographic museum Chiflika Chukurovo, as well as the “Thracian Treasures” Exhibition in Varna.
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HISTORY
Former Austrian President Thomas Klestil is the initiator of the Meetings of the Presidents of Central European States. In 1992 he shared his idea with the Presidents of Czechoslovakia Vaclav Havel, Germany Richard von Weizsacker, and Hungary Arpad Goncz.
The meetings were established as an annual forum in 1994 when the Presidents of Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Slovenia met in Litomysl, Czech Republic.
The meetings of the Central European Heads of State are not institutionalized and give the Presidents the floor to hold free discussions and exchange thoughts on topics of common interest regarding both the participating countries and the whole of Europe.
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THE PARTICIPANTS
Host
• Georgi Parvanov, President of the Republic of Bulgaria (22 January 2002)
(in order of auguration)
• Stjepan Mesic, President of the Republic of Croatia (18 February 2000)
• Vladimir Voronin, President of the Republic of Moldova (4 April 2001)
• Alfred Moisiu, President of the Republic of Albania (24 July 2002)
• Janez Drnovshek, President of the Republic of Slovenia (22 December 2002)
• Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic (7 March 2003)
• Branko Crvenkovski, President of the Republic of Macedonia (28 May 2004)
• Ivan Gasparovic, President of the Slovak Repubic (15 June 2004)
• Heinz Fischer, President of the Republic of Austria (8 July 2004)
• Victor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine (23 January 2005)
• Lech Kaczynski, President of the Republic of Poland (23 December 2005)
• Sulejman Tihic, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (28 Februray 2006)
Specially invited by the president of the Republic of Bulgaria
• Valdas Adamkus, President of the Republic of Lithuania (12 July 2004)
• Sergei Stanishev, Prime-Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria
• Ivaylo Kalfin, Vice Prime-Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria
• Rumen Ovcharov, Minister of Economy and Energy
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