President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to Open 12th YES Annual Meeting September 11 in Kyiv, Ukraine
The 12th Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting entitled “At Risk: How New Ukraine’s Fate Affects Europe and the World,” organized by YES, in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, will take place September 10-12, 2015, in Kyiv, Ukraine.
For the second time, the YES Annual Meeting is taking place in the Ukrainian capital. Previously, from 2004 to 2013, the forum was held at its traditional venue, the Livadia Palace in Yalta in Crimea, which has since been annexed by the Russian Federation.
For more than a decade, YES has worked to connect Ukraine to the world, explore ways to a peaceful and cooperative wider Europe. The annual forum convenes global leaders, government officials, business executives, social innovators and Ukrainian student leaders to identify, address and find solutions that may help overcome the obstacles preventing Ukraine from becoming a more modern, open and prosperous country.
The 12th YES Forum will concentrate on determining how Ukraine can become a force for global stability and European values in today’s volatile global context, building on the revolution of dignity, and addressing the challenges that arose from the annexation of Crimea, the conflict in the East, and the urgent need to reform the country’s financial, economic, legal and security sector.
On the first day, participants will discuss how to restore European security and reach peace in Ukraine; threats to the global economy and the role of Ukraine in this context, and which strategies can provide energy security for the world and Ukraine. New global cooperation and alliances, including the relations of Europe, the West, and the Russian Federation will be discussed.
The second day of the Forum will focus on assessing Ukraine’s reform achievements and deficits and in the economic, financial, legal and security sectors. Participants will also discuss challenges including decentralization and constitutional changes and the upcoming local elections.
Commenting on goals of the 12th Yalta European Strategy Annual Meeting Victor Pinchuk, Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist, YES Founder, and Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005), Chairman of the Board of YES, said: “We want show you a new Ukraine striving for a European future. We will show her honestly: achievements and deficits, threats and promise, with one message: it was never so important to support Ukraine. To help its forces for change. And to convince those, who want to prevent Ukraine’s success, to change course.”
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko will officially open the 12th YES Annual Meeting on September 11th. He will speak about Ukraine’s position in the current global context and present his vision on how to overcome current challenges and threats.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk will open the second day of the YES Annual Meeting on September 12th, laying out his vision for reforms and addressing reform successes and setbacks.
This year, the 12th YES Annual Meeting will bring together more than 350 global leaders from politics, business, society and media from more than 20 countries to discuss new Ukraine’s impact on Europe and the world. One hundred Ukrainian student leaders, including those who have received scholarships from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, will also have a chance to meet YES speakers and participants.
Among the speakers attending include: Jean Asselborn, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission (2004-2014); Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden (2006-2014); Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, European Commission; Leonid Kuchma, President of Ukraine (1994–2005); Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005) and Chairman of the Board of YES; Gen. Stanley McChrystal, (U.S. Army, Retired), Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) (2009-2010); Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) (2009-2010); Ivan Mikloš, Minister of Finance of Slovakia (2002-2006, 2010-2012); Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Carlos Pascual, Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, U.S. Department of State (2011-2014); Gen. David A. Petraeus, (U.S. Army, Retired), and Director, Central Intelligence Agency (2011-2012); Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of NATO (2009-2014); Prime Minister of Denmark (2001-2009); Wolfgang Schüssel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Austria (2000-2007); Radosław Sikorski, Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Poland; Speaker, Sejm of the Republic of Poland (2014-2015); Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland (2007-2014); Javier Solana, EU High Representative for CFSR (1999-2009), and member of the Board of YES; Strobe Talbott, President, Brookings Institution, and Chair, Foreign Affairs Policy Board, U.S. Department of State; Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, President of Latvia (1999-2007); and Lamberto Zannier, Secretary General, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Speakers from abroad also include corporate leaders, economists and experts like: Yevgeniya Albats, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive Officer, The New Times; Ribal Al-Assad, Founder and Chairman, Iman Foundation; Ronnie Chan, Chairman, Hang Lung Properties Ltd.; Andrew Forrest, Chairman, Fortescue Metals Group; Ruslan Grinberg, Director, Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences; Bernard-Henri Lévy, Philosopher and Writer; Director, La Règle Du Jeu; Arthur Laffer, Founder and Chairman, Laffer Associates and Laffer Investments; Peter Pomerantsev, Senior Fellow to the Transitions Forum, Legatum Institute; Timothy Snyder, Professor, Yale University; Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (2007-2011); Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government; Ian Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vitol Holding B.V.; Maxim Timchenko, Chief Executive Officer, DTEK LLC., and others.
In addition to the President and Prime Minister, Ukraine will be represented by Aivaras Abromavičius, Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine; Volodymyr Groisman, Chairman, Parliament of Ukraine; Natalie Jaresko, Minister of Finance of Ukraine; Pavlo Klimkin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine; Andriy Pyvovarsky, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine; Valeriya Hontareva, Governor, National Bank of Ukraine; Mikheil Saakashvili, Head, Odessa Regional State Administration; David Sakvarelidze, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine; Dmytro Shymkiv, Deputy Head, Administration of the President of Ukraine; Artem Sytnyk, Director, National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine; Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv; and others.
Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Columnist, The Financial Times and Stephen Sackur, Presenter, HARDtalk, BBC will moderate the 12th YES Annual Meeting. Participants will arrive in Kyiv on September 10th for an opening reception and discussion of the question: “What Ukraine expects from Europe – And Vice Versa.”
The 12th Yalta European Strategy Annual Meeting will be streamed live at
yes-ukraine.org as well as web-sites of the Media Partners in English and Ukrainian.
The official Twitter of the 12th YES Annual Meeting is @yes_ukraine, and participants and followers can include the hashtag: #YESUkraine2015.
Special Partner of the 12th Yalta European Strategy Annual Meeting is:
DTEK
Partners of the 12th Yalta European Strategy Annual Meeting are:
ARAWAK ENERGY
ALFA-BANK (UKRAINE)
DCH GROUP
INTERNATIONAL RENAISSANCE FOUNDATION
Media Partners of the 12th Yalta European Strategy Annual Meeting are:
ICTV
UKRAYINSKA PRAVDA
NOVOYE VREMYA STRANY (NV)
ERA FM
THE KYIV POST
Contact Information for Media Enquiries:
[email protected]
Tel.: +380 44 494 11 48
