Economic Forum (in Poland)

Economic Forum is an annual international meeting of

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

and political elites held in the first half of September^{/sup> in the ski

A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partia ...
and spa resort

A destination spa or health resort is a resort centered on a spa, such as a mineral spa. Historically, many such spas were developed at the location of natural hot springs or mineral springs; in the era before modern biochemical knowledge and ...
of Karpacz

Karpacz (German: ''Krummhübel'') is a spa town and ski resort in Jelenia Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, south-western Poland, and one of the most important centres for mountain hiking and skiing, including ski jumping. Its population ...
in south-western Poland

Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. The Forum was founded by Zygmunt Berdychowski in 1992 and it is organised by the Foundation Institute for Eastern Studies in Warsaw

Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
. Between 1992–2019 it was held in Krynica-Zdrój

Krynica-Zdrój (until 31 December 2001 Krynica, rue, Крениця, uk, Криниця) is a town in Nowy Sącz County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It is inhabited by over eleven thousand people. It is the biggest spa town in ...
.
Within almost 30 years of its history the Economic Forum has evolved from a small conference, with about 100 participants, to one of the biggest and most recognisable meetings of the political and business leaders of Central and Eastern Europe, and is therefore sometimes referred to as the "Eastern Davos".

According to the organisers, the mission of the Economic Forum is to create a favorable climate for development of political and economic cooperation in Europe. The opinions of the Forum's speakers are often quoted by the international media and discussed by leading analysts.

Guests

The Forum engages political, business and third sector leaders, i.a.: presidents, prime ministers, ministers, EU commissioners, parliamentarians, presidents of large companies, experts, as well as representatives of cultural institutions and media. The 29th edition of the Economic Forum in 2019 was attended by 4,500 visitors from 60 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The following speakers have attended the Forum over the years, among others:

Valdas Adamkus

Valdas Adamkus (; born Voldemaras Adamkavičius; 3 November 1926) is a Lithuanian-American politician, diplomat and civil engineer. He served as the 5th and 7th President of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009.

Adamkus' ...
, José María Aznar, Gordon Bajnai

György Gordon Bajnai (; born 5 March 1968) is a Hungarian entrepreneur and economist, who served as the Prime Minister of Hungary from 2009 to 2010. Prior to that, he functioned as Minister of Local Government and Regional Development from 200 ...
, José Manuel Barroso, Marek Belka

Marek Marian Belka (; born 9 January 1952 in Lódź) is a Polish professor of economics and politician who has served as Prime Minister of Poland and Finance Minister of Poland in two governments. He is a former Director of the International M ...
, Elmar Brok

Elmar Peter Brok (born 14 May 1946) is a German politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1980 until 2019, who is best known for his role as chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is a mem ...
, Jerzy Buzek, Emil Constantinescu

Emil Constantinescu () (born 19 November 1939) is a Romanian professor and politician, who served as the President of Romania, from 1996 to 2000.

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Constantinescu became a founding member and vice president ...
, Massimo D'Alema

Massimo D'Alema (; born 20 April 1949) is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema also serv ...
, Norman Davis, Valdis Dombrovskis

Valdis Dombrovskis (born 5 August 1971) is a Latvian politician serving as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People since 2019 and European Commissioner for Trade since 2020. He previously serve ...
, Roland Dumas

Roland Dumas (; born 23 August 1922) is a French lawyer and Socialist politician who served as Foreign Minister under President François Mitterrand from 1984 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1993. He was also President of the Constitutional Counci ...
, Andrzej Duda

Andrzej Sebastian Duda (; born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as president of Poland since 6 August 2015. Before becoming president, Andrzej Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and th ...
, Mikuláš Dzurinda

Mikuláš Dzurinda (; born 4 February 1956) is a Slovak politician who was the prime minister of Slovakia from 30 October 1998 to 4 July 2006. He is the founder and leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) and then the Slovak Democratic a ...
, Robert Fico

Robert Fico (; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018 (when he resigned). He has been the first leader of the Direction – Social Democracy (SMER-SD) ...
, Vladimir Filat

Vladimir Filat (born 6 May 1969), commonly referred to as Vlad Filat (), is a Moldovan businessman and politician, founder of Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova. He was the Prime Minister of Moldova from 25 September 2009 to 25 April 2013. He ...
, Jan Fisher, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (; born 29 April 1968) is a Croatian politician and diplomat who served as President of Croatia from 2015 to 2020. She was the first woman to be elected to the office since the first multi-party elections in 1990 and ...
, Alfred Gusenbauer, Dalia Grybauskaitė

Dalia Grybauskaitė (; born 1 March 1956) is a Lithuanian politician who served as the eighth President of Lithuania from 2009 until 2019. She is the first woman to hold the position and in 2014 she became the first President of Lithuania to be ...
, Rebecca Harms

Rebecca Harms (born 7 December 1956) is a German politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2004 until 2019. She is a member of the Alliance '90/The Greens, part of the European Green Party. From 2010 until 2016 she serv ...
, Václav Havel

Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...
, Danuta Hübner

Danuta Maria Hübner, née Młynarska ( or ; born 8 April 1948) is a Polish politician and Diplomat and Economist and Member of the European Parliament. She has served as European Commissioner for Regional Policy from 22 November 2004 until 4 Jul ...
, Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Toomas Hendrik Ilves (; born 26 December 1953) is an Estonian politician who served as the fourth president of Estonia from 2006 until 2016.

Ilves worked as a diplomat and journalist, and he was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the ...
, Ǵorge Iwanow, Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk ( uk, Арсеній Петрович Яценюк ; born 22 May 1974) is a Ukrainian politician, economist and lawyer who served as Prime Minister of Ukraine twice – from 27 February 2014 to 27 November 2014 and f ...
, Viktor Yanukovych

Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of D ...
, Sergey Yastrzhembsky, Viktor Yushchenko

Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko ( uk, Віктор Андрійович Ющенко, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010.

As an informal leader of th ...
, Jarosław Kaczyński

Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński (; born 18 June 1949) is a Polish politician who is currently serving as leader of the Law and Justice party (known by its Polish acronym PiS), which he co-founded in 2001 with his twin brother, Lech Kaczyński, ...
, Ewa Kopacz

Ewa Bożena Kopacz (; née Lis; born 3 December 1956) is a Polish politician who has served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament since 2019. She previously was Marshal of the Sejm from 2011 to 2014, the first woman to hold the office, a ...
, Aleksander Kwaśniewski

Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule, he was active in the Socialist Union of Pol ...
, Bronisław Komorowski

Bronisław Maria Komorowski (; born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who served as President of Poland from 2010 to 2015.

Komorowski served as Minister of Defence from 2000 to 2001. As Marshal of the Sejm, Komorowski exercis ...
, Gediminas Kirkilas

Gediminas Kirkilas (, born 30 August 1951) is a Lithuanian politician who was Prime Minister of Lithuania from 2006 to 2008.
Life and career
Kirkilas was born in Vilnius in 1951. After returning from mandatory military service, from 1972 to 197 ...
, Horst Kohler, Milan Kučan

Milan Kučan (; born 14 January 1941) is a Slovene politician who served as the first President of Slovenia from 23 December 1991 until 22 December 2002. Before being president of Slovenia, he was the 13th President of the Presidency of SR Slov ...
, Vytautas Landsbergis

Vytautas Landsbergis (born 18 October 1932) is a Lithuanian politician and former Member of the European Parliament. He was the first Speaker of Reconstituent Seimas of Lithuania after its independence declaration from the Soviet Union. He has ...
, Thomas de Maizière, Stjepan Mesić

Stjepan "Stipe" Mesić (; born 24 December 1934) is a Croatian lawyer and politician who served as President of Croatia from 2000 to 2010. Before serving two five-year terms as president, he was prime minister of SR Croatia (1990) after the fir ...
, Mario Monti, Leszek Miller

Leszek Cezary Miller (Polish pronunciation: ; born 3 July 1946) is a Polish politician. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since July 2019.

From 1989 to 1990 was a member of the Politburo of the Polish United Workers' P ...
, Viktor Orbán

Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between ...
, Andris Piebalgs, Petro Poroshenko

Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko se ...
, Viviane Reding

Viviane Adélaïde Reding (born 27 April 1951) is a Luxembourgish politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Luxembourg. She is a member of the Christian Social People's Party, part of the European People's Party. She p ...
, Mikheil Saakashvili

Mikheil Saakashvili ( ka, მიხეილ სააკაშვილი ; uk, Міхеіл Саакашвілі ; born 21 December 1967) is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician and jurist.
, Jorge Sampaio

Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio (; 18 September 1939 – 10 September 2021) was a Portuguese lawyer and politician who was the 18th president of Portugal from 1996 to 2006. A member of the Socialist Party, a party which he led between 1989 a ...
, Karel Schwarzenberg

Prince Karel of Schwarzenberg (, born 10 December 1937) is a Czech politician, former leader of the TOP 09 party and was its candidate for president of the Czech Republic in the 2013 election. He served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies ( ...
, Bohuslav Sobotka

Bohuslav Sobotka (; born 23 October 1971) is a Czech politician and lawyer who served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from January 2014 to December 2017 and Leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) from 2010 until his resig ...
, László Sólyom

László Sólyom ( hu, Sólyom László, ; born 3 January 1942) is a Hungarian political figure, lawyer, and librarian who was President of Hungary from 2005 until 2010. Previously he was Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of Hungary f ...
, Beata Szydło

Beata Maria Szydło (, née Kusińska , 15 April 1963) is a Polish politician who has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019. A member of Law and Justice (PiS), she previously served as Prime Minister of Poland from 2015 ...
, Boris Tadić

Boris Tadić ( sr-cyr, Борис Тадић, ; born 15 January 1958) is a Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia from 2004 to 2012.

Born in Sarajevo, he graduated from the University of Belgrade with a degree in psycholo ...
, Mirek Topolánek

Mirek Topolánek (, born 15 May 1956) is a Czech politician and business manager who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from 2006 to 2009 and the leader of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) from 2002 to 2010. Between 2006 and 2 ...
, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Sviatlana Heorhiyeuna Tsikhanouskaya (' Pilipchuk;, , ; russian: Светлана Георгиевна Тихановская, , Svetlana Georgiyevna Tikhanovskaya, , , born 11 September 1982) is a Belarusian educator and the leader of the Bel ...
, Donald Tusk

Donald Franciszek Tusk ( , ; born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician who was President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He served as the 14th Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and leader of the Civic ...
, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga (born 1 December 1937) is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth President of Latvia from 1999 to 2007. She is the first woman to hold the post. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected for the seco ...
, Lech Wałęsa

Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democrati ...
, José Luis Zapatero, Amanda Zuffi.

Debates

Over 200 debates and discussion panels are held annually during the Forum. They are grouped in the following theme paths:
* Business and Management
*Europe and the World
*Healthcare Forum
* Investments Forum
* Innovations Forum
* International Politics
*New Economy
* Regions' Forum
*Society
*Sustainable Development

Media

The Forum is regularly covered by journalists from major international media outlets. The debates and discussion panels have been covered by Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to:
People
* Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
* Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
* Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and m ...
, AFP, Reuters

Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.

The agency was esta ...
, ANSA
Ansa (Latin for "handle") or ANSA may refer to:

Organizations
* Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, Italian news agency
** Ansa Mediterranean or ANSAmed, section of the above
* Applied Neuroscience Society of Australasia
* Association of Norw ...
or TASS, and by leading daily newspapers such as: ''Die Welt

''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE.
''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter All ...
'', Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...
, ''Le Figaro

''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...
'', Euronews, ''Kommersant

''Kommersant'' (russian: Коммерсантъ, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia ...
'', ''Financial Times

The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
'' and ''The Wall Street Journal

''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
''.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website

Economy of Europe
Eastern Europe}