Bucharest, May 14th-15th, 2019
Between the 14th and 15th of May 2019, President Emil Constantinescu attended an international conference at the Athenée Palace Hilton Hotel in Bucharest, organized by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with the Aspen Institute in Romania, the European Endowment for Democracy and the German Marshall Fund.
Marking a seminal moment marking Romania’s appurtenance to the greater European project through its tenure of the Presidency of the European Council, the event brought together a number of prestigious guests from the European political and academic spheres, among them Pavol Demeš, former Slovakian Minister for Foreign Affairs; George Ciamba, Romanian Delegate Minister for European Affairs; Mircea Geoană, politician and chairman of the Aspen Institute in Romania; H.E. Michael Žantovský, former Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States; and H.E. Ștefan Tincă, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Romania to the Kingdom of Belgium.
Held 30 years after the creation of the necessary premises for Central and Eastern Europe’s return to the fundamental values and principles that underpinned and guided the progressive coming together of the countries of Western Europe through successive stages of European integration, the conference proceedings focused on the past, present and future challenges faced by a European Union whose primary assets lie in its spirit of solidarity and in its fundamental and inalienable principles of cooperation, peace and dialogue. The conclusions underlined the imperative that the European Union consolidate its efforts towards further expansion and integration, thus achieving a wonted projection of stability and prosperity across its Eastern vicinity.
