Three Seas Initiative Summit and Forum (Bucharest, 17-18 September)
President of Romania, Mr. Klaus Iohannis, will host the third Three Seas Initiative Summit on 17-18 September 2018, at the Cotroceni Palace.
The Bucharest Summit will represent the political opportunity to validate the strategic guidelines founding the Three Seas Initiative’s future development. Consequently, the first objective of this flexible political platform is the economic development of the Central and Eastern Europe countries, through increasing interconnectivity, especially on the North-South Axis but not only, in three main fields – transport, energy, digital – and boosting competitiveness of the participant states’ economies.
The second objective is to increase real convergence among EU Member States, thereby contributing to enhanced unity and cohesion within the Union, to allow continuing the European integration policy as a basis for relaunching the European project.
Thirdly, the Initiative is intended to contribute to the strengthening of the transatlantic relation, through fostering the USA’s economic presence in the region, as a catalyst for an enhanced cooperation and as part of the transatlantic partnership.
The Summit hosted in Bucharest by President Klaus Iohannis will concretely contribute to the process of developing the regional cooperation, marking the advance of the Initiative to the tangible deliverables phase. Therefore, the Summit aims at achieving political endorsement of the participant states of a short list of priority regional interconnection projects in energy, transport and digital, proposed by the governments of the participant states, creating a network of the Chambers of Commerce from the states participating in the Initiative, starting procedures to set up a Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund and officially launching of the Initiative’s site.
In the margins of the Summit, at Romexpo, under the High Patronage of the President of Romania, will take place the first edition of the Three Seas Initiative Business Forum, co-organised by the Presidential Administration of Romania and the Chamber of Commerce of Romania in cooperation with the Atlantic Council of the United States and the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration.
The Business Forum will be open for attendance to companies and governmental officials from the Initiative partner states, from the other EU Member States, from the United States of America, from the Western Balkans, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia, to representatives of the European Commission and of the European and international financial institutions as well as to representatives of think-tanks and academia.
The goal of the Forum is to stimulate business initiatives and investment in the region, to debate on implementing the priority projects, as well as to address the potential drivers of growth and innovation such as the SMEs, young entrepreneurship, start-ups and business incubators in the region. The Forum will facilitate business-to-business and business-to-government meetings, as well as policy debating panels analysing the strategic implications of the evolutions within the Initiative.
President of Romania, Mr. Klaus Iohannis, will open the Business Forum on Monday, 17 September, then taking part in a plenary presidential session together with President of Croatia, Ms. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, President of Poland, Mr. Andrzej Duda, President of the Federal Republic of Austria, Mr. Alexander van der Bellen, and European Commissioner for Regional Development, Ms. Corina Crețu.
On 17 September, in the evening, at the Cotroceni Palace, the President of Romania will host a cultural event dedicated to the Centenary of the Romanian Modern State and a Gala Dinner with prestigious participation.
The Plenary Session of the Summit, chaired by President Klaus Iohannis, will take place on Tuesday, 18 September. After the Plenary Session, the President of Romania will deliver press statements, alongside President of Croatia, Ms. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Prime Minister of Poland, Mr. Mateusz Morawiecki, and Mr. Rick Perry, Secretary of Energy of the United States of America.
The participating states at the Bucharest Summit will be represented at the highest level, as nine Heads of State, two Presidents of national Parliaments, a Prime Minister and a Foreign Affairs Minister have announced their presence.
Moreover, the partners of the Initiative will be represented at the Summit by the President of the European Commission, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker, the Secretary of Energy of the United States, Mr. Rick Perry, the German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Heiko Maas, as well as by representatives of the European and international financial institutions, the Presidents of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, and of the European Investment Bank, Mr. Werner Hoyer. The World Bank will also be represented at the Summit.
The Three Seas Initiative is an informal and flexible political platform, at Presidential level, including the 12 EU Member States located between the Baltic, the Adriatic and the Black Sea - Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The first two Summits of the Initiative took place in Dubrovnik, in 2016, and Warsaw, in 2017.
