José Manuel Barroso, Tony Blair and Arseniy Yatsenyuk Join Global Leaders at 11th Yalta European Strategy Annual Meeting

The 11^th Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting announced today that José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission and former Prime Minister of Portugal (2002-2004), will be a featured speaker at the forum. YES, the leading public diplomacy platform in Eastern Europe to develop strategies for Ukraine and Wider Europe and promote Ukraine’s European integration holds its 11^th Annual Meeting under the title "New Ukraine, New Europe, New World - Building and Defending."

President Barroso will deliver his remarks, “Working Together for a United Ukraine in a United Continent,” during an evening reception held on Friday, September 12th.

Earlier on September 12th, businessman and philanthropist Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, will deliver his perspectives on “How Can Business Contribute to Finding Peace for Ukraine?”

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Prime Minister of Ukraine, will open the second official day of the YES Annual Meeting on September 13th. Tony Blair, Patron of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997-2007) will deliver special remarks entitled “Toward Reconciliation” also on Saturday.

In addition, on Saturday, leaders of Ukrainian political parties will discuss the issue of “Parliamentary Elections: Breakthrough or Entrenchment of the Old?” featuring a panel including Anatoliy Grytsenko, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine and Head of the “Civic Position” Party; Oleh Liashko, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine and Head of the Radical Party of Ukraine; Yuriy Lutsenko, Advisor to the President of Ukraine and Head of the “Bloc of Petro Poroshenko” Party and Serhiy Tigipko, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine;  Head of the “Strong Ukraine” Party.

The 11th YES Forum will be moderated by Chrystia Freeland, Member of the Parliament of Canada and Stephen Sackur, Presenter on BBC HARDtalk.

More than 350 leaders in politics, business, society and media representing 20 countries will discuss the impact of the historical events since last November in Ukraine on Europe and the world, how to address Ukraine’s internal and external challenges and the risks that come with them for Europe and beyond? How can Ukraine’s international partners effectively support the country’s further development?

For the first time in its history, the YES Annual Meeting will take place in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. In past years, the forum was held at its traditional venue, the Livadia Palace in Yalta, Crimea, which was annexed by Russia from Ukraine last March.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, President of the Republic of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves and President of European Parliament Martin Schulz will officially open the 11th YES Annual Meeting on September 12^th.

Among other speakers at the 11th YES Annual Meeting will include General Wesley K. Clark (ret.), NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Commander (1997-2000); Mustafa Dzhemilev, Member of Parliament of Ukraine and Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (1991-2013); Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency (1997-2009); Acting Vice President of Egypt (2013); Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2005); Valdis Dombrovskis, Member of the European Parliament, Group of the European People's Party; Prime Minister of Latvia (2009-2014); Joschka Fischer, Vice Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany (1998 – 2005); Stefan Füle, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy; Leonid Kuchma, President of Ukraine (1994 – 2005); Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005) and Chairman of the Board of YES; Miroslav Lajčák, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic; Yves Leterme, Secretary General, International IDEA; 48th Prime Minister of Belgium (2009 – 2011); Tomas O. Melia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; Carlos Pascual, Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs,  U.S. Department of  State (2011-2014); Javier Solana, EU High Representative for CFSR (1999-2009), member of the Board of YES and others.

Ukraine will be represented, among others, Volodymyr Groisman, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Regional Development, Building and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine; Pavlo Klimkin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Yuriy Prodan, Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine; Vitaliy Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv; Serhiy Taruta, Head, Donetsk Regional State Administration; Valeria Hontareva, Head, National Bank of Ukraine.

Speakers also include leading businessmen, economists and experts: Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University; Roger Myerson, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago, Nobel Memorial Prize Laureate in Economic Sciences (2007); 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; Maxim Timchenko, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Management Board, DTEK; Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, Founder, Foundation "People of the Future"; Civic Leader;  Igor Yurgens, Chairman of the Management Board, Institute for Contemporary Development and others.