Thirty years ago, in the German city of Weimar, foreign affairs ministers of Poland, France and Germany signed a treaty regarding cooperation for the integration of the European Union. What role can these three nations play in the modern Europe? That’s only one of the questions we will try to answer during the X edition of the European Forum for New Ideas in Sopot, including a special event: Women’s Weimar Triangle.
Weimar Triangle, formally known as the „Committee for the Support of Franco-German-Polish Cooperation”, was created on 28th-29th of August 1991 by them ministers of foreign affairs: Krzysztof Skubiszewski from Poland, Roland Dumas from France, and Hans-Dietrich Genscher from Germany. The main idea behind the Weimar Triangle was the political, cultural, military, and scientific cooperation as well as helping the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in their transformation and entering the structures of the European Union. Poland played a leading role in this integration.
Currently, 30 years after these events, Europe and the EU are in a much different spot. UK leaving the Union has become a fact. More challenges lie ahead of Europe: shared responsibility in fighting the climate change, migration politics, economic exchange with China and the US or policy towards Russia.
What role can currently the Weimar triangle play in the EU?
“Weimar Triangle, Germany, France and Poland, consists of 193 million inhabitants and produces nearly 40 percent of the EU’s total GPD” – says Maciej Witucki, president of Polish Confederation Lewiatan. Lewiatan, with the employer’s federations from France (MEDEF) and Germany (BDI), is the initiator of the Economic Weimar Traingle taking place on this year’s EFNI. “Whatever the political agenda of our governments is, the facts speak for themselves: entrepreneurs are actively working for the flow of technological know-how, commodities and services between the East and the West of Europe” – Maciej Witucki remarks.
According to BDI, MEDEF and Polish Confederation Lewiatan, the cooperation between Germany, France and Poland can still be a leading impulse in creating common industrial and technological policies. Their main goals are increasing the global competitiveness of Europe, stimulating the economic growth and positive developments on the labor market, including creating best practices for the transformation of the economy and climate protection.
We will discuss it in Sopot with a group of representatives of Polish, French and German business, and entrepreneurs from the key branches of industry. Representatives of global technological companies, NGOs and science field will also join the debate.
We will discuss what women can do together by taking European affairs into their own hands during a special edition of the Women’s Weimar Triangle with a group of outstanding speakers.
Women’s Weimar Triangle is an initiative of the French-Polish Chamber of Commerce, CCIP, under which Polish, German and French women cooperate for the development of the EU, based on business, economic and technological cooperation of these three countries.
More info: www.efni.pl