On September 4th and 5th during the annual Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdrój the 25th edition of the Conference Europe of the Carpathians will be held. Guests from over a dozen countries, MPs, ministers, experts and local government officials will discuss parliamentary cooperation, challenges facing the region, its heritage and economic, cultural and intellectual perspectives. The conference will be opened with a speech by Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Ryszard Terlecki. The event will be held traditionally in the New Spa House (Sala Karpaty)

Conference Program:

September 4 (Wednesday)

10:00 Promotion of the Visegrad Library of the Economic Forum series

Prior to the Conference, there will be a promotion of the second volume of the series. The discussion will be moderated by Attila Szalai of the Research and Archival Institute of the History of Systemic Change and attended by Ryszard Terlecki, Deputy Speaker of the Sejm, Maciej Szymanowski, Director of the Wacław Felczak Institute in Warsaw, and Jan Draus, Chairman of the IPN Collegium.

10:35 Opening of the conference by the Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Ryszard Terlecki

10:45-11:45 "The Intellectual Faces of Central Europe"

In the first part, the discussion will focus on the culture uniting the Carpathian nations, intellectual currents in the region, Central European values in the shaping of contemporary Europe and people of Central Europe who changed the world. The moderator will be Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Ryszard Terlecki, and the speakers will be: Pavol Mačala, Board Member of the Scientific Association of Personalism (Slovakia), Archbishop Zbigniew Stankiewicz, Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Riga (Latvia), Anca-Maria Cernea, President of the Bucharest Association of Catholic Physicians, Ingrida Veliutė, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Karel Schwarzenberg, Vice Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, and Attila Szalai, Research and Archival Institute for the History of Systemic Change RETÖRKI (Hungary).

11:55-12:55 "The Culture of Freedom. Yesterday and Today"

The next panel discussion will include a discussion about freedom as a fundamental value and contemporary threats to freedom in Europe. The debate will be moderated by Piotr Babinetz, MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Culture and Media. The panelists in this part of the conference are Frédéric Petit, Member of the National Assembly of the French Parliament, Piotr Naimski, Secretary of State at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure, Mihai Gherghe, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Culture and National Identity of Romania, Leonardas Vilkas, translator of Polish literature, activist of the Lithuanian Freedom League, Marián Šuplata from the Matej Bel University (Slovakia), and Paruyr Arshaviri Hayrikyan, President of the Union for National Self-Determination (Armenia).

13:05-14:05 COLLEGIUM CARPATHICUM series: "What can universities do for the Carpathian region?

Collegium Carpathicum as an institution for strengthening scientific and academic cooperation between universities in the Carpathian region, promotion and creating a positive image of the region - these are some of the issues that will be discussed during this panel. The moderator of the discussion will be Jan Malicki, Director of East European Studies at the University of Warsaw. The speakers will be: Jan Lata, Rector of the University of Ostrava (Czech Republic), Paweł Trefler, Rector of the State Higher School of Eastern Europe in Przemyśl, Sándor Őze, Director of the Institute of History at the Péter Pázmány Catholic University. Péter Pázmány Catholic University (Hungary), Peter Kónya, Rector of the University of Prešov (Slovakia), Stefan Purici, Vice Rector for International Relations of the University of Stefan the Great in Suceava (Romania), and Ihor Tsependa, Rector of the Vasyl Stefanyk Subcarpathian National University (Ukraine). .

14:15-15:15 "Central Europe about itself: mutual perceptions and regional community"

The next part of the conference will be devoted to the Neighbourhood and Cooperation in the Tri-City, V4, Bucharest 9 and internal problems of Central Europe. The discussion will be led by MEP Marek Kuchciński, Chairman of the Carpathian Parliamentary Group, and will be attended by: Oleg Lipski, Co-Chairman of the Moldova-Poland Parliamentary Assembly, Lőrinc Nacsa, Member of the Hungarian National Assembly and Emanuelis Zingeris, Chairman of the International Affairs Committee of Lithuania. Speakers will also include: Markijan Malski, Dean of the Department of International Relations at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

15:20 Opening of the exhibition Carpathian Europe by the Vice-Marshal of the Sejm, Ryszard Terlecki (Pijalnia Główna)

18:20-19:20 "The economy of the future from the perspective of Central and Eastern European countries"

Uneven development of Europe as an ethical and civilizational challenge for the West, sustainable development, economic resources of Central and Eastern Europe and its political potential - these are the topics of the next Wednesday panel. The moderator will be Jerzy Kwieciński, Minister of Investment and Development. The following speakers will take part in the discussion: Denisa Žiláková, Director General of the Central Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Investment and Information Technology of Slovakia, Władysław Ortyl, Marshall of the Podkarpackie Region, Gábor Gion, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance of Hungary, Marius Skuodis, Deputy Minister of Economy and Innovation of Lithuania and Eduard Shalsi, Minister for the Protection of Entrepreneurship (Albania).

September 5 (Thursday)

11:00-12:00 "Central Europe: in the world of new institutions 2018/2019"

During the first panel on Thursday, the discussion will focus on the emergence of new institutions in Central Europe, their tasks and prospects. The discussion will be moderated by Waldemar Paruch, Head of the Centre for Strategic Analysis, and the special guest will be Krzysztof Szczerski, Head of the President's Office. The panel will be attended by: Beata Surmacz, Director of the Central Europe Institute in Lublin, Maciej Szymanowski, Director of the Wacław Felczak Institute for Polish-Hungarian Cooperation in Warsaw, Karol Biernacki, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wacław Felczak Foundation in Budapest, Attila Baliga, Analyst at the Trilateral Geostrategic Institute in Bucharest and Jan Hudacky, Chairman of the Institute for Christian Social Policy in Bratislava.

12:05-13:05 "Can Central Europe Change the Balance of Power in the European Union?"

The different view of Central Europe on the European Union, the European balance of power between East and West, the role and common interests of Central Europe in the European Union in the coming years - these are the issues of the next part of the conference. The conference will be moderated by Zdzisław Krasnodębski, Member of the European Parliament, and the following speakers will take the floor: Christoph B. Schiltz, Brussels correspondent for the German daily Die Welt, Otmar Lahodynsky, President of the Association of European Journalists, Jaroslav Daniška, journalist for Konzervatívny denník Postoj, and Jacek Karnowski, Editor-in-Chief of Tygodnik Sieci.

13:15-14:15 "Information wars: diagnosis and recommendations"

The next panel is a discussion about cyberspace and security on the Web. The moderator will be Andrzej Zybertowicz, advisor to the President of Poland. Panelists for this part of the conference: Colonel Raymond Wojcik, Director of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), Edvinas Kerza, Deputy Minister of National Defense of Lithuania, John Micgiel, Eastern European Studies, University of Warsaw and Colonel Przemysław Przybylak, Commander of the Cyber Operations Center.

14:25-15:25 "Carpathians: environment - heritage - society"

The last part of the conference will be devoted to the demography of Central and Eastern Europe, environment and sustainable development. The debate will be chaired by MEP Barbara Bartuś, Vice-chairman of the Carpathian Parliamentary Group and the panel will be attended by Jerzy Polaczek, MP, Anna Krupka, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, Marta Malska, Head of the Department of Tourism at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Artur Szymon Michalski, Deputy President of the Management Board of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management and Iván Gyurcsík, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the Danube Commission. Piotr Bies, visual artist (Carpathian Academy of Arts) and Ryszard Skotniczny, CEO of Slow Food Beskid Foundation will also take part in the discussion.

The guests of the Economic Forum in Krynica will be Marshal of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek and Head of the Chancellery of the Sejm Agnieszka Kaczmarska. On September 4, during an evening gala, the Speaker of the Sejm will present the award for the Man of the Year of the Economic Forum

source: sejm.gov.pl