30^th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall

I.P.O. President moderates final session of commemorative event in Berlin

Berlin, 9 November 2019
RE/27486c-is

In the final session of a four-day conference on the theme, "Berlin Wall 30 – From the Divided to the City of Freedom," organized by the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD), Mr. Guy Verhofstadt, former Prime Minister of Belgium, called for improving the institutional efficiency of the European Union, including external border management on the basis of the Schengen Treaty. The session was moderated by Dr. Hans Köchler (Austria), President of the International Progress Organization (I.P.O.) and member of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD).

Ms. Michèle Alliot-Marie, former Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, emphasized the need for the European Union to focus on long-term planning and on sustainable goals in the field of security and social development. Mr. Bertel Haarder, former Minister of Education and Minister for Integration and Europe (Denmark), underlined the importance of national identity and explained its compatibility with the European model. Ms. Kati Piri (Netherlands), Member of the European Parliament and Vice-President of the Socialists and Democrats Group, called for a European policy of inclusion and non-discrimination, and for the elimination of borders in the minds of people. Mr. Andreas Kiefer (Austria), Secretary-General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities at the Council of Europe, presented trans-national cooperation in the framework of the "Euroregions" as a model for European integration on a sustainable basis. Mr. Ögmundur Jónasson, former Minister of Interior and Minister of Education of Iceland, warned of complacency in a situation when – 30 years after the end of the division of Europe – new walls are being erected and the United Nations Organization has been made a passive observer of global power politics.

After an introduction by the President of the ICD, Mr. Mark Donfried, the session was opened by Nobel Laureate (Economy) Edmund S. Phelps (USA), with a speech entitled "After Freedom: The Roads to Flourishing." Politicians, scholars and public intellectuals from Armenia, Aruba, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Republic of Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States discussed the prospects of peace 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the way forward under conditions of an emerging multipolar order.

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