5th Yalta Meeting will address impact of global challenges on Ukraine and Europe

The 5th annual summit of the Yalta European Strategy, YES, will be launched on July 10, 2008.

The Yalta Annual Meeting, the largest and the most influential non-governmental forum on issues of Ukraine and the EU, will bring together over 160 leaders of politics, society and business, diplomats and journalists from about 20 countries.

The participants of the 5th Yalta Annual Meeting of YES will include President of Poland Lech Kaczynski, Managing Director the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn, President of Poland 1995-2005 and member of the Board of YES Aleksander Kwasniewski, Vice President of the European Parliament and member of the Board of YES Marek Siwiec, and former Deputy Chief of Staff of George W. Bush and chief strategist of the Bush presidential election campaigns Karl Rove.

The forum aims at discussing the current global challenges and their impact on Europe and Ukraine. It will highlight the new challenges and opportunities caused by the global financial and food crises, transformation of the EU and the future of the Lisbon Treaty, energy security and strategies for the EU, the Black Sea region and Ukraine.

Special sessions will analyse Ukraine's politics and its integration with the EU. Other issues include preparations for Euro 2012, Ukraine's prospects to respond to the global food crisis, and the impact of the presidential elections in Russia and the U.S. on Ukraine and Europe. President Kwasniewski will chair a debate of Ukrainian political leaders on the next steps towards systemic reforms.

The 5th Yalta Annual Meeting will be formally launched on July 1o in Yalta; its sessions will traditionally take place in the Livadia Palace on July 11-12.

YES was founded in July 2004 by Ukrainian businessman and society leader Victor Pinchuk. For more information please visit YES website: www.yes-ukraine.org