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President Kucan's Proposed Themes for Discussion with Presidents of Central European States

Ljubljana, April 23 2002

The 9th Meeting of Presidents of Central European States is to take place in Slovenia on 31 May and 1 June 2002 on invitation from the President of the Republic, Milan Kucan. The Presidents of all Central European States have confirmed their participation at the meeting, as did the majority of Presidents from the broader Central European region who were invited following an agreement at the meeting held in 2001 in Verbania.

Within the preparations for the meeting, President Kucan received the Ambassadors of the participating states to discuss the content of the meeting with them. In the letter that he sent to his guests, the participants of the meeting, President Kucan outlines some possible themes related to the main topic of the meeting that could be discussed behind closed doors.

President Kucan proposes for the Presidents to seek common answers to the questions of whether Europe is capable of enforcing its influence and taking on its own share of the responsibility for the future of a globalised world; is it ready to develop its own political identity enabling it to assume such a role; do EU and NATO enlargement processes already fulfil the need for a spiritually, politically, economically and security-wise integrated entity; will the Convention on the future of Europe yield the answers to these crucial questions; does the present European order, as shaped by the actions of the Allied coalition following World War II and by the fall of the Berlin Wall, offer sufficient protection to political democracy, stability, peace and security for the whole of Europe in such a way that opposing tendencies cannot pose a threat to these values; do the integration processes truly contribute to the overcoming of European political divisions and the prevention of new ones; is Central Europe capable of offering answers from its own experience to the questions concerning both Europe's and the world's future; is Central Europe capable of better helping in the transformation processes under way in South East Europe where security, equality among differences, democracy and prosperity remain distant values in the wake of bloody wars?