Thoughts on Europe - The Legacy of the Founding Fathers in the Europe of Today

As the opening event of the Variations on Europe conference series, the subject of the symposium will be commemorative and relevant at the same time. By launching the symposium, the Antall József Knowledge Centre wishes to commemorate those iconic politicians and thinkers who contributed to the initiation and the shaping of the European integration with remarkable achievements.

With the help of the respective chairmen and directors of the foundations named after them, the symposium will recall the visions of Konrad Adenauer, Jean Monnet, Alcide de Gasperi, and Robert Schuman about the future of Europe. The ideas discussed will include the vision of European unity, the evaluation of the successes and doubts of the past 25 years, as well as the possible challenges ahead of the common European future. As the closing accord of the symposium, a ceremony to inaugurate the bust of Prime Minister József Antall will take place in the József Antall Building of the European Parliament.

Conferernce Programme:

10.00 - Registration

11.00-11.30 Opening Remarks
- Joseph Daul (President of the European People's Party)
- József Szájer (Vice-Chair of the Group of the European People's Party
- András Gyürk (Head of the Hungarian EPP delegation to the European Parliament)

11.30-13.00 Thoughts on Europe - The Legacy of the Founding Fathers in the Europe of Today
- Hans-Gert Pöttering (Chairman of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung)
- Jacques Santer (President of the Robert Schuman Foundation)
- Franco Frattini (President of the Italian Society for International Organisations)
- José Maria Gil-Robles (President of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe)
- Mikuláš Dzurinda (President of the Martens Centre for European Studies)
- chair: Péter Györkös (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary, Permanent Representative (Coreper II)

13.00-13.30 Inaguration ceremony opened by Mrs József Antall (Founder of the Antall József Knowledge Centre) and Gergely Gulyás (Deputy Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly)

13.30-15.00 Reception