Ex-leaders of EC, Croatia, Poland and Belgium to take part in Astana Club
To recall, the organizers of the Astana Club are the Foundation of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan - Kazakh Leader and the Institute of World Economy and Politics under the Foundation of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan - Kazakh Leader.
One of the key foreign guests, the President of Croatia (2010-2015), Ivo Josipovic, will speak at the opening of the Astana Club, dedicated to discussing the key issues of the Eurasian development, the cooperation in the region and understanding the experience of the past century.
Mr. Josipovic became a part of the history of his country with the success achieved in European integration. The politician is famous in the international arena as a member of the HWPL Peace Committee on International Law (HWPL is a non-governmental, non-profit international peace organization in association with the United Nations Department of Public Information), as well as one of the most consistently promoting the "Declaration on Peace and Cessation of War" (DPCW), starting from the moment of its proclamation and through the entire multi-step procedure of the international legal recognition at the UN level.
At the dawn of his career, Ivo Josipovich worked in several international projects, as well as served as an expert in the Council of Europe. In 2003 and 2008 he was also elected to the Parliament. On June 20, 2009, he became a candidate for the post of the President of Croatia, ahead of competitors in the SDP primaries. His election campaign was conducted under the "New Justice" slogan. On January 11, 2010, the Croatian CEC announced Josipovic's victory in the second round of the presidential election. During his reign, negotiations on the accession of Croatia to the European Union culminated in the successful holding of a referendum. Mr. Josipovic is also known as one of the leading Croatian experts in international criminal law.
The President of the European Commission (2004-2014), the Prime Minister of Portugal (2002-2004), José Manuel Barroso will take part in the first panel session "Critical time of Eurasia: is there a way out of the geopolitical impasse?". Together with other experts, he will discuss the growing confrontation in the Greater Eurasia space.
A lawyer by training and former head of the center-right Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD), Barroso was first elected to the Portuguese Parliament and appointed Assistant Minister of the Interior in 1985. In 1992, Mr. Barroso was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, and in that position in 1994, on behalf of the Portuguese government, he signed an agreement on cooperation between the EU and Russia. In June 2004, he resigned from the post of the Prime Minister in order to occupy the post of the President of the European Commission. Under the period of his service, Romania and Bulgaria became part of the European Union, and negotiations were held on Turkey's accession to the EU.
In 2006, European Voice magazine named Barroso the "European of the Year." He is the author of a large number of publications on political science, international relations and European integration issues. He is currently a non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International.
Along with Mr.Barroso, the well-known politician, President of Poland (2010-2015), Bronislaw Komorowski will take part in the discussion about the problem of total geopolitical uncertainty and possible instruments for its solution.
Mr. Komorowski was elected the President in the elections in 2010 from the Civic Platform Party, of which he was the vice-chairman before taking the President's office. He began his political activities in 1989-1990 as head of the apparatus of the Minister of cooperation with political organizations and associations. In the early 1990s, he participated in the activities of the Democratic Union, and after uniting with the Liberal Democratic Congress, the Christian Democratic Union of Freedom. Also, Mr. Komorowski served as the Secretary General in both organizations, and later - as the Minister of National Defense of Poland and Marshal of the Sejm of Poland. He is an honorary doctor of the University of Vitovt the Great and the Ivan Franko Lviv National University. He has a Master's degree in history from the University of Warsaw.
The Secretary-General of the International IDEA Institute, the Prime Minister of Belgium (2008, 2009-2011), Yves Leterme also plans to visit Kazakhstan to participate in the Astana Club's work. As the speaker of the opening session, Mr. Leterme will join the discussions on the problem of developing the interaction institutions in Eurasia and methods of dealing with the growing threats.
Yves Leterme currently holds the post of the Secretary General in the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). In 1981, Mr. Leterme studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven, and after that entered the University of Ghent, and graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor's degree in Political science. A year later, he received a Master of Law degree, and in 1985 a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. In the federal government, he served as a Vice Minister and Minister for budget, transport, and institutional reform, before becoming the Prime Minister in 2008. He re-entered the Government in 2009 as a Minister of Foreign Affairs and for the second time accepted the post of the Prime Minister on November 25 of the same year. During his stay as a Prime Minister, Belgium presided over the European Union.
The IV meeting of the annual Astana Club will be held in the capital of Kazakhstan on November 12-13 and, traditionally, it will be held at the Nazarbayev Center. This year, more than 50 speakers from 33 countries of the world will take part in the Astana Club, including Austria, Afghanistan, Belgium, Egypt, Italy, Poland, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Iran, Spain, China, Norway, Russia, Croatia, the U.S., Sweden and Japan.