Where old Europe meets new
Katarzyna Dębek: The motto of this year's 16th Economic Forum is "European challenges: The question of Europe's identity". Does Europe have an identity problem?
Zygmunt Berdychowski: Europe has problems with its identity in two ways. We would like to tackle the first aspect during our discussions devoted to macroeconomics, and here the main question is: How fast and to what extent should the EU abandon its social model, which was the basis for economic development in the old member states in the last decades? The Lisbon Strategy adopted a couple of years ago by the old 15 members is not being properly implemented and we can already tell that it reduces the enlarged EU's competitiveness, and its chances to compete in the global economy with the US and Asian countries. Maintaining the status quo is simply impossible.
The second pivotal question referring to Europe's identity is: In which direction and when should we enlarge the EU?
This is more of a problem of culture and civilization. Should we talk about enlarging the EU with Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Belarus, Russia or Moldova, or rather the countries of the Mediterranean basin such as Turkey, Israel or Algeria? It seems that before making these decisions we have to answer these questions - no matter if these decisions will be taken in five or 10 years. We have to talk about it, we need to initiate dialogue.
The next enlargement, expected to take place on January 1, 2007, will bring in Bulgaria and Romania. Will these countries be represented at the Krynica Forum?
There will be a few dozen people from both countries in Krynica and a couple of discussion panels will be devoted to their integration with the EU.
What themes will be covered at this year's Forum?
There will be 10 thematic blocks with 10 discussion panels each, plus seminars and lectures. The subject range is very wide - from economic issues, through politics, energy security, science and culture, social issues and NGOs. Briefly speaking, all participants in the forum who come to Krynica will be able to choose from a large number of events.
How much emphasis is going to be put on energy security during the forum?
There will be 12 panel discussions related to the problem of oil and gas supply, covering such topics as: the problems of ensuring the security of oil and gas transport lines; the new means of transporting oil and gas from Central Asia to Europe; and what should be done to assure Europe's energy security.
For participants who are especially interested in deepening their knowledge of Russia, Ukraine or energy-related issues, we are organizing smaller events that we initiated last year: Europe-Russia, Europe-Ukraine and Energy Forum.
Will there be many guests representing the Russian side?
This is always a big issue. Currently, over 90 guests from Russia have confirmed their participation. I believe in the end there will be at least 100 guests from Russia, making it the second-most represented foreign country after Ukraine. The groups consist of both representatives of the governments, administration, business, NGOs and think tanks. Of course, we do realize that when it comes to Russia, we would like them to be even more present, but we bear no illusions that, so far, Poland and what's going on in this country is not attractive enough for those people who talk business in London, New York or Davos. But the interest on their side is growing.
What is the leading theme of this year's report?
There will be a special chapter devoted to energy policy as we are witnessing many conflicts related to oil and gas supply.
What are businessmen's expectations of the forum? Why should they attend it?
They come to meet potential business partners, to hear, straight from the horse's mouth, what developments in economic policy they can expect in Central and Eastern Europe, so that they can talk about the institutional and formal changes that will take place in the nearest future. As we already have 50 confirmations from guests representing different countries at the ministerial level at least, it seems that we won't be short of opinion. Decision makers and businessmen will be able to present their point of view to them as well.
How is this event financed?
Eighty percent of resources come from companies who use it as a way to promote themselves. We managed to obtain the remaining 20 percent through different EU or international institutions which provide us with grants.
Krynica could be an opportunity to improve Poland's image. Do you get any financial support from the government?
We applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has launched programs promoting Poland abroad, but the answer we got was that the forum is not a good occasion to promote Poland abroad and we didn't get any support. A grant was given to an institution organizing an associated event, but we didn't.
Is it fair to compare Krynica with Davos?
No, because we are a much smaller conference with fewer participants and a smaller budget. Our budget last year amounted to zł.5 million and Davos has a budget of some zł.200 million. We employ a dozen people, and they employ almost 200. But the biggest difference is the program.
Davos is a meeting of the most important people in the world who want to discuss the world's future - "who look high and far" as one publicist once said - while we want Krynica to be the place where the dialogue between old and new Europe takes place. Our goals don't reach any further, that is our ambition.
