European Union ambassadors visit Jacobs University

On Friday, March 30, 2007, Jacobs University welcomes ambassadors from eleven EU countries on-campus, who visit Bremen as members of the diplomatic delegation in the context of the informal EU foreign minister conference, the traditional “Gymnich meeting”.

[ Mar 29, 2007]  Arriving in the afternoon, the Excellencies from Austria, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Spain will be welcomed by President Joachim Treusch and the doyen of the Bremen consular corps, Prof. Dr. h. c. Bernd-Artin Wessels. After an introduction into the special concept of Jacobs University the ambassadors will tour the campus. The evening campus program will be opened by a reception of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce in Jacobs University’s Campus Center, followed by a formal dinner for the foreign guests, at which Bremen’s mayor and senator of the interior and sports, Thomas Röwekamp, will give an address. Jacobs University students, musicians and members of the university’s Eastern European Dance Club, will provide a festive cultural program for the occasion.

The so called “Gymnich meeting” was first organized in 1974 by the then German foreign minister Walter Scheel at Gymnich castle near Cologne. Scheel’s intention was to provide an informal atmosphere beyond formal negotiation to his − at that time − nine colleagues to openly debate pressing EU issues. The semiannual meeting has become a tradition and is organized in different locations by the country, which at the time holds the EU Council Presidency. This year, the currently twenty-seven foreign ministers will concern themselves with the challenges of the relationship between the European Union and its neighbors with a special focus on Belarus. Furthermore, the European representatives will discuss the latest developments in the Near-East conflict and the actual situation in Kosovo and Serbia.