Among the issues discussed on Wednesday by the participants in the last day of the European Economic Congress 2012 (EEC) were, among others, the right conditions for innovation, nuclear power, the crisis of liberalism and the new media. The largest business event in Central Europe, with six thousand attending guests and almost 900 speakers, is now behind us.
The third day of the 4th European Economic Congress began with a debate on the crisis of liberalism, which gathered together the representatives of different political factions. The debate was attended by Michał Kamiński, Member of the European Parliament; Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, Member of the Polish Parliament; Józef Oleksy, Poland’s Prime Minister, 1995-1996, and Janusz Palikot, Member of the Polish Parliament.
Wednesday was also when a debate on new fiscal regulations in EU was held as part of the European Economic Congress (The Fiscal Pact), as were those on the impact of the increased financial discipline in the member states on stability and new prospects for economic growth. Members of the discussion panel called “EU budget and fiscal policy” were sceptical for different reasons towards the idea of harmonizing tax levels across the EU.
“In Hungary we are not quite behind this idea” – said Zoltán Cséfalvay, Hungarian Deputy Minister of Economy. “We want to be competitive, for example as far as attracting foreign investment is concerned, but a tax system is an instrument of economic policy”.
“There is, however, an area of unification relating to the foundations of the tax system for business and identifying, for example, what can or cannot constitute a tax relief. The key issue is what each of the member states offers for the taxes it collects. It is enough to compare the condition of the transport infrastructure in Germany and Poland and then look into how attractive things are for investors” – noted Dariusz Rosati, Member of the Polish Parliament, Poland’s Foreign Minister, 1996-1997.
The last day of the 4th European Economic Congress was abundant in sessions devoted to the Euro 2012 championships, nuclear power and energy efficiency, the new media, new technologies, metallurgy and heat engineering. One of the hotly debated issues was whether Poland will benefit from the organization of Euro 2012. Cezary Gizka, Member of the Supervisory Board of the National Chamber of Sport and Antoni Piechniczek, Deputy President for Training of the Polish Football Association were among the speakers.
Kamil Durczok, Chief Editor of Fakty TVN, provided a summary of the changes on the media market, David J. Rintoul, Deputy Chairman for European Operations, Chairman of U.S. Steel Košice, Slovakia and Surojit Ghosh, Director of Commercial and Corporate Affairs, Member of the Management Board in ArcelorMittal Poland, CFO of FCE Business Division East were among the speakers in the debate on metallurgy, and Peter Böhret, Vice-president of European Data Recovery at Kroll Ontrack was among those discussing the security of online trading.
Over 40 topical sessions took place on the last day of the Congress; they were attended by almost 350 speakers. The fourth season of this largest business event in Central Europe revealed the need to discuss the issues which are important to the Polish and European economy. These essential problems were tackled by the Congress guests from the spheres of science, business and politics.
The opening session of the European Economic Congress, held on the 14th of May, was attended by Bronisław Komorowski, President of Poland; Waldemar Pawlak, Deputy Prime Minister of Economy; Janusz Lewandowski, EU Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget; Barbara Kudrycka, Minister of Science and Higher Education and Jerzy Buzek, Chairman of the European Parliament 2009-2012, Mikuláš Dzurinda, Prime Minister of Slovakia, 1998-2006, Slovakia’s Foreign Minister 2010-2012; Joschka Fischer, Vice-Chancellor of Germany 1998-2005, Foreign Minister of Germany 1998-2005 and Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland 1995-2005.
The Inauguration Ceremony was documented by a group of illustrators, students of Katowice Academy of Arts, Faculty of Graphic Design. They are members of the KILO Academic Circle of Graphic Designers. The Congress debates were also accompanied by various art installations in Katowice’s urban spaces, presenting the use of EU funds in the city.
The European Economic Congress 2012 took place between the 14th and 16th of May in Katowice.
source: press office of EEC