30-31/05/97: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE - ENCOUNTERS WITH EUROPE - IN LISBON ON 30 AND 31 MAY 1997


An International Conference - Encounters with Europe - will take place on 30 and 31 May next ,in the cultural Centre Belem, Lisbon. A large number of European personalities and two hundred participants will discuss the issues of enlargement and of the development of the European institutions, as well as the world role of Europe.

Wilfried Martens, President of the EPP Group in the European Parliament and of the European People’s Party, Ottfried Hennig, Vice-President of the EPP and Secretary-General of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of the Partido Social Democrata (PSD), will open the debate on behalf of the conference organisers.

Anibal Cavaco Silva, former Prime Minister, will chair the session on the challenges of enlargement. Alexander Boskov, Vice Prime-Minister of Bulgaria, will be the lead speaker on this subject.

Elmar Brok, Member of the European Parliament, and its representative on the Intergovernmental Conference will chair the session on institutional balance. Carl Bildt, High Representative for Bosnia and President of the Swedish Moderaterna Partit and João de Deus Pinheiro, European Commissioner, will address this topic.

José Maria Gil Robles, President of the European Parliament, will preside the discussions on the role of Europe in the World. Tom Spencer, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the EP and José Manuel Durão Barroso, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal and President of the PDS Committee on International Relations, will be the key speakers in this debate.

This International Conference is the first major European event to take place in Portugal, following the accession of the Partido Social Democrata (PSD ) to the European People’s Party (EPP). Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will close the work of the Conference, Saturday 31 May at 12.30 hours.


More information from Miguel Seabra telephone 00 32 75 84 90 00