The Baltic Forum's 13th International Conference
The EU And Russia In 2008: In Search of New Approaches
23- 24 May, 2008
Baltic Beach Hotel, Jūrmala
Reports Expert's point of view
Programme Photo Gallery
On May 23-24th, the Baltic Forum 2008 held its annual conference. This year's conference, titled The EU and Russia in 2008: In Search of New Approaches, addressed to the relations between the EU and Russia in the wake of the presidential elections in this country. The event continued the discussion initiated a year ago: the May 2007 Baltic Forum conference showed the possibility and necessity of a political dialogue between the EU and Russia, as well as a lack of understanding of each other's intentions and long-term interests.
 Therefore, this year's event was focusing on the EU's and Russia's future principles and strategies vis-à-vis each other. The conference was also addressing the relations between Russia and the West in the context of global security challenges.
Conference was opened by Guntis Ulmanis, President of Latvia (1993 - 1999), Kaspars Gerhards, Latvian Minister of Economics, and Alexander Veshnyakov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia in Latvia. Ainārs Šlesers, Latvian Minister of Transport, made introductory remarks on the second day of the conference.
 In the conference participated Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Contemporary Development Igor Yurgens, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Rolf Ekeus, Deputy DG External Relations of The European Commission Michael Webb, Director of the EU-Russia Centre Fraser Cameron, Senior Research Fellow at The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) Michael Emerson, Member of the European Parliament Justas Vincas Paleckis, Chairperson of the creative center Nash Vybor Irina Khakamada, Director of the External Economical Relations Department at the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade Sergey Chernyshev, Member of the Swedish Parliament Urban Ahlin, Professor of Law at the City Law School, City University, London and Research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) Alan Riley, President of The Nixon center Dmitri Simes, Researcher at the International Security Research Group (ISRG) Gerhard Mangott, Director of the Department of Economics and Investment at the Russian Ministry of Transport Juliya Zvorykina, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Committee for Foreign Affairs at the Russian State Duma Andrey Klimov and other experts and politicians, diplomats and representatives of non-governmental organizations.
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