WARSAW, August 3, 2011./ Fundacja Instytut Studiow Wschodnich/.‘The discussion during the panel, entitled ‘Open Ukraine in the Trans-Atlantic area – preparing joint actions‘, will represent one of the stages of a wider project – ‘Open Ukraine’, which is carried out jointly by the Eastern Institute in Warsaw and Centre for Transatlantic Studies of SAIS, Washington D.C. It is intended to aid Ukrainian, American and European experts in preparing recommendations for structural reforms in Ukraine.
Discussion during the Forum will coincide with introduction of essential reforms of the health care and pension system on the Dniester, and also with the entry of negotiations with the EU, concerning the Association Agreement and extended Free Trade Area, into a decisive phase.
Participation in the discussion on the issues of introducing far-reaching reforms in Ukraine was announced by: President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek; former President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski; Chairman of the European Integration Committee and former head of Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Borys Tarasiuk; former European Commissioner for Enlargement, Günter Verheugen; Vice-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Supreme Council of Ukraine, Leonid Kozara; and President of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, Joseph Daul.
Alarming about irregularities in institutions or companies in the name of the public interest is called whistleblowing, and it will be exactly the topic of one of the discussion panels during the Krynica’s Forum. Thanks to determination of ‘whistleblowers’, a number of fraud, embezzlement and corruption cases were revealed in public institutions as well as in big financial corporations. A serious problem in many states is lack of legal protection for persons disclosing information. Anglo-Saxon countries have already developed a system of guarantees for ‘whistleblowers’, and a similar solution has been introduced in Germany.
Can we expect that other states will follow? What is the motivation of ‘whistleblowers’ – moral courage, or perhaps care for the public interest? The importance of ‘ethical whistleblowing’ will be discussed during the Forum by politicians and scientists that have for many years dealt with the issue of legal protection for ‘whistleblowers’, and also persons whose disclosure of frauds came as a blow to influential groups of interest.
Attendance in the discussion was announced by: Mykola Melnyczenko, Major of Ukraine’s Secret Service, whose disclosure of the recordings from the office of former president Leonid Kuchma (disclosure of so called ‘Melnyczenko tapes’), after the murder of the founder of ‘Ukrainian Prawda’ Gieorgij Gongadze, is regarded by many observers of Ukrainian political scene as the beginning of the end the political careers of Leonid Kuchma and his team); Hans-Martin Tillack, a correspondent of ‘Stern’ weekly in Brussels, who was the first to describe the financial scandal in Eurostat; Julia Pitera, Polish Government’s Plenipotentiary for Preparation of a Programme to Prevent Irregularities in Public Institutions; Professor David Lewis, one of the best known experts in the area of whistleblowing, the organizer of seminars related to the legal aspects of ‘ethical informing’; Stephen M. Kohn – Professor of Antioch School of Law, Managing Director of US National Whistleblowers Centre.
In connection with the growing level of debt, limited access to EU funds, the key issue of local self-governments in the coming years will be how to find sources for financing investment. In this context, a very important role can be played, inter alia, by returnable financing mechanisms anticipated in the next financial perspective of the European Union. The above issues will be discussed during the panel opening the 5th Forum of Regions, ‘Place of local self-governments in the EU financial perspective (2014-2020)’, with participation announced by the following speakers: Ministers of Regional Development: Elzbieta Bienkowska, Poland and Tamas Fellegi, Hungary; President of the EU Committee of Regions, Mercedes Bresso; President of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz; and Marshall of Malopolskie Voivodeship, Marek Sowa.
The issues related to perception of the crisis from various points of view: the theory and practice of economic policy, business, the theory and practice of management will be the topic of the discussion panel ‘Poland, Europe, World – after or before the crisis?’, which will be attended by Managing Director of Deutsche Bank AG, Peter Tils; Director of US Centre for Transatlantic Relations, Daniel Hamilton; former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland, Grzegorz Kolodko; President of the Board of Deutsche Bank Poland, Krzysztof Kalicki; and Professor Andrzej Kozminski, the Vice-Chancellor of Kozminski University.
Participants in the panel will look for an answer to the vexing questions for economists: Has the global crisis already come to an end, or should we regard the turmoil in the Eurozone as its another phase? What’s next? Inflation? Insolvency of states? Political turmoil? Withdrawal of globalization? What can be the basis for announcing the end of the crisis? How to distinguish economic policy and corporate management in crisis time from ‘normal’ ones? What have we learned as politicians, businessmen, management, economists?
Main Partner of Economic Forum – Małopolskie Region
Source
Fundacja Instytut Studiow Wschodnich
Contact
Łukasz Ciuba
Fundacja Instytut Studiow
Wschodnich 00-382 Warzawa, ul.Solec 85
tel.: 22 583-11-29 | fax: 22 583-11-50