Gerhard Schroeder has arrived to Kyiv to participate in YES Summit

Federal Chancellor of Germany (in office October 27, 1998 - November 22, 2005) has arrived to Kyiv today to participate in the 4th annual meeting of Yalta European Strategy (YES). 

He is expected to make a speech to the participants of the Summit at the opening ceremony of the meeting at 19:00 in a conference hall of "Premier Palace" Hotel in Kyiv. The guests will hear opening address by the President of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša, the founder and YES Board member, Victor Pinchuk and YES Board Chairman, British MP, Steven Bayers.

On June 29, Gerhard Schroeder is to deliver a speech at a plenary session of the meeting "Agenda 2020 and the Future of the EU-Ukraine Relations".

Reference.

Gerhard Schroeder was born in 1944. 1966 to 1971 he studied law at the University of Göttingen. Schroeder joined the Social Democratic Party in 1963. In 1978, he became the federal chairman of the Young Socialists, the youth organization of the SPD. In 1980, Gerhard Schroeder was elected to the German Bundestag. In 1986, Schroeder was elected to the regional parliament of Lower Saxony and became leader of the SPD group. After the SPD won the regional elections in June 1990, he became Minister-President of Lower Saxony as head of a SPD-Greens coalition.

Schroeder held centrist positions, and tended to prefer business circles and served on the "Volkswagen" supervisory board. In April 1998, he was chosen as the SPD's candidate chancellor for the 27 September 1998 elections. Most voters associated Schroeder with the Agenda 2010 reform program, which included cuts in the social welfare system (national health insurance, unemployment payments, and pensions), lowered taxes, and reformed regulations on employment and payment.

At the elections held on September 27, 1998 SPD got 40, 9% of votes securing the majority of seats in Bundestag. After one month the SDP party entered a coalition with Green Party that added 6.7% of the votes and Schroeder was officially elected a chancellor. The two parties held 345 out of 669 seats in the new parliament. The new parliament was mainly formed of leftist politicians. During seven years of his Chancellorship, Schroeder pursued an unprecedented and successful work aimed at cultivating close ties between Germany and East European Countries, particularly Ukraine.