European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation to be launched in Paris on 7 October 2008
+++ 16:30: PRESS BRIEFING BY ALEKSANDER KWASNIEWSKI AND MOSHE KANTOR +++
BRUSSELS, 29 SEPTEMBER 2008 – Under the chairmanship of former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR) will hold its inaugural meeting in Paris on Tuesday, 7 October 2008. The ECTR, a non-governmental organisation, is comprised of eminent elder statesmen, Nobel Peace Prize laureates and renowned individuals who are recognised all over the world for their achievements in promoting tolerance. Among the tasks of the Council will be to prepare a range of initiatives to promote tolerance and mutual respect across Europe, including the institution of a European Day of Tolerance, and to counteract ethnic, religious and cultural discrimination.
On 10 November 2008, the ECTR will present at the European Parliament in Brussels a number of initiatives to foster a united European front against manifestations of intolerance. The session will be held in close cooperation with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Jewish Congress under the auspices of the EU Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, Jan Figel’.
ECTR members are: Aleksander Kwaśniewski (chairman), former President of Poland; Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress and of the World Holocaust Forum; Jose María Aznar, former Prime Minister of Spain; Erhard Busek, former Special Coordinator for the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe and former Vice-Chancellor of Austria; Václav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic; Milan Kučan, former President of Slovenia; Alfred Moisiu, former President of Albania; Göran Persson, former Prime Minister of Sweden; Rita Süssmuth, former Speaker of the German Bundestag; Vilma Trajkovska, President of the Boris Trajkovski International Foundation, Macedonia; and Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, former President of Latvia.
The ECTR chairmen Kwaśniewski and Kantor will brief journalists after the end of inaugural meeting about the aims and initiatives of the Council. The press briefing will take place Académie Diplomatique Intérnationale (4Bis, Avenue Hoche, 75008 Paris), on Tuesday, 7 October 2008, at 16h30 (4:30 p.m.). One-to-one interviews with Messrs. Kwaśniewski and Kantor, as well as with other ECTR members attending the meeting in Paris, will be possible subject to prior arrangement.
Press contact:
Michael Thaidigsmann, Brussels
Tel: +32 2 552 09 24
Mob: +32 485 86 95 84
E-mail: press@toleranceday.eu; thaidigsmann@gmail.com