The Forum is held in the City of Wrocław, a thriving, cosmopolitan city and a vanguard of innovation where progress, in all of its forms, seems to have no limits. With an ample history spanning over a thousand years, Wrocław is a place where tradition and experience intertwines with the vibrancy of a dynamic business centre. Every year, Wrocław is becoming “the” place for high-end investments and commerce. According to the Association of Business Service Leaders in Poland Wrocław is the most dynamically developing city in the business services sector in the years 2008–2010. But the city offers much more than innovative business solutions – it is one of the most rapidly developing cities on the cultural map of Poland and Europe. It is also the winner of the European Capital of Culture 2016, which will bring numerous cultural events to the city.
Convened in one of Central Europe’s most dynamic cultural and entrepreneurial hubs, the Wrocław Global Forum (WGF) aims to strengthen the voice of Central Europe as a strong partner in the transatlantic community and a leader on global values. Now one of the premier foreign policy conferences in Central Europe, the Wrocław Global Forum brings together over 400 top policy-makers and business leaders to explore the region’s impact in Europe, as well as its crucial role in the transatlantic partnership and on the global stage. This year, the Forum will have a sharp focus on the situation in Ukraine and the implications of those events for Central Europe and the wider Atlantic community. As the evolving circumstances in Ukraine present new and significant challenges to the ideal of an integrated, democratic, and inclusive Atlantic community, the WGF will be an essential forum for dialogue on how the transatlantic partners can ensure a secure future both within and beyond their own borders. This discussion on Ukraine will take place against a backdrop commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 1989 elections in Poland that led to the first free, post-Communist government, as well as the 15th anniversary of NATO enlargement and the 10th anniversary of EU enlargement. The Wrocław Global Forum will be an integral part of these commemorations, both in recognizing the key contributions of Solidarity and Poland to the revolutions of 1989, and in looking forward to consider the impact of events in Ukraine on the strength of our democracy, our future security, and economic prosperity.
In 2014, the Wrocław Global Forum will examine the progress made since the fall of Communism 25 years ago, but against a backdrop of significant challenges – economic, political, and strategic –now facing the transatlantic partnership. While honoring that progress, we must now turn to securing our future. We must work to strengthen the Atlantic values that have been at the foundation of the transition of Central and Eastern Europe, and that will be essential to future transitions toward stability, prosperity, and democracy. At the Wrocław Global Forum, we will examine the real challenges in the world today and ask what the United States and Europe must do to overcome them and build an equally successful path for the next 25 years. In particular, we will focus on:
- The Future of Ukraine, etc.
- The Transatlantic Economy, etc.
- Securing the Transatlantic Community and its Values, etc.