# East forum Berlin

Every year, the east forum Berlin brings together opinion leaders from the political and business worlds in the East and the West to discuss challenges and opportunities faced by the economic area from Lisbon to Vladivostok and beyond. It was founded in 2013.
The overall aim of the east forum Berlin is to facilitate dialogue in order to overcome barriers for prosperity, to exchange know-how and intensify networks. In addition, this international event is an opportunity to present Berlin as a vibrant location of political and economic debate.

## east forum Berlin 2015

The third east forum Berlin was devoted to the opportunities and challenges for a common economic space from Lisbon to Vladivostok. The central issues of the forum were economic reforms aimed at external stabilization and a progress assessment.

## east forum Berlin 2016

It is the 4th forum that took place during Germany's OSCE Chairmanship in the middle of new deadlocks and new dynamics that characterise the transforming economic and political realities between Europe and the East. Generally, the event focused on Europe’s economic future. One of the main topics was the trade relations between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union, and China’s Silk Road Initiative.
The two opposing trends are embedded in new division lines, leading to an unfamiliar status quo of alienation. Secondly, they are surrounded by recently formed alliances consisting of as yet poorly known stakeholders, which create new spheres of influence. These dynamics offer potential for growth but also involve geopolitical and geo-economic challenges for all stakeholders in the region.

## east forum, Berlin 2017

The title of the forum was: "The future of European and Eurasian partnership: Rebuilding trust. Defining drivers. Overcoming barriers".

## List of speakers since 2013

| Name | Name | Name | Name | Name | Name |
| Mikhail Alekseev | Dr Gernot Erler | Andrzej Kopyrski | Ara Nranyan | Bakytzhan Sagintayev | Dr de:Volker Treier |
| Chris Antonopoulos | Joschka Fischer | Prof Hans-Helmut Kotz | Günther Oettinger | Dr Harald Schwager | Jérôme Vacher |
| Dr Anders Åslund | Mark Frese | Alena Kupchyna | Dr Heinz Olbers | Giuseppe Scognamiglio | Prof Günter Verheugen |
| Dr Péter Balás | Dr Ricardo Giucci | Giorgi Kvirikashvili | Marcus Osegowitsch | Željko Sertić | Dr Giuseppe Vita |
| Gianfranco Bisagni | Alexey Grigoriev | Iurie Leancă | Djoomart Otorbaev | Pavlo Sheremeta | Carlo Vivaldi |
| Dr Wolf-Ruthart Born | Alexei Gromyko | Rasim Ljajić | Gianni Franco Papa | Igor Shuvalov | Hristiyana Vucheva |
| Dr Karl Brauner | Dr Azra Hadziahmetovic | Kristjan Maruste | Bill Pavleski | Dmytro Shymkiv | Dr Theo Waigel |
| Vasile Bumacov | Dr Johannes Hahn | Dr Hans-Jürgen Meyer | Daniels Pavluts | Andrei Slepnev | Niko Warbanoff |
| Dr Erhard Busek | James Hansen | Frauke Mispage | Gerhard Pfeifer | Stephan Steinlein | Siegfried Wolf |
| Fikret Čaušević | Fadil Ismajli | Lubomir Mitov | Alain Pilloux | Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier | Klaus Wowereit |
| Sir Suma Chakrabarti | Florin Nicolae Jianu | Jan Mládek | Dmitri Polyanskiy | Ludwig Soukup | Cornelia Yzer |
| Cathrina Claas-Mühlhäuser | Guido Kerkhoff | Dr Peter Mooslechner | Friedrich A. Rather | Dmytro Tabachnyk | Dr Guido Westerwelle |
| Dr Eckhard Cordes | Viktor Khristenko | Michael Müller | Dr Albert Rau | Dr Johannes Teyssen | Wolfgang Büchele |
| Lutz Diederichs | Dr Thomas Kirchberg | Dr Christian Nagel | Johannes Regenbrecht | Hashim Thaçi | Witold Waszczykowski |
| Vjačeslavs Dombrovskis | Olaf Koch | Erik Nielsen | Janusz Reiter | Emmanuel Thomassin | Ulrich Grillo |
| Mircea Ciopraga | Dr Michael Diederich | Niko Warbanoff | Wang Dezhan | Prof Dr Rainer Lindner | Volker Treier |
| Vache Gabrielyan | Elena Burmistrova | Klaus Schäfer | Zhecho Stankov | Pieter Boone | Philipp Rösler |

## Organization

The east forum Berlin has been founded by Achim Oelgarth, Rainer Lindner as well as Ivonne Bollow and is organized by UniCredit, Metro Group, and the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft) in cooperation with the Federal State of Berlin. Since 2016 BDI and DIHK have joined as well. Media partners are eastonline and Ost-Ausschuss Informationen. Participation is by invitations only, which are extended to representatives from politics and business.