The conference in Vilnius will be attended by the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Tibor Navracsics, the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Lubomír Zaorálek, the Chairman of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Hans-Gert Poettering, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Väino Reinart, and Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Parliamentary State Secretary for EU Affairs of the Latvian Foreign Ministry. The number of participating senior officials is expected to total around 30.
The participants of the conference will discuss the European Humanities University's role in the development of the countries of Eastern Europe and will get acquainted with the University's vision and plans for the future. International donors will discuss prospects for providing financial support to the University.
Media Advisory: The European Commissioner Navracsics, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, the Chancellor of the Ministry of Education and Science Tomas Daukantas, and the Rector of European Humanities University (EHU) David Pollick will give welcome speeches at EHU campus (Valakupių Street 5, Vilnius) on Thursday, March 10th, at 1.10 -1.35 p.m.
The Speaker of the Seimas Loreta Graužinienė, Navracsics, and Pollick will give opening and welcome speeches at the Constitution Hall of the Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania at 3.30-4.25 p.m. Media representatives wishing to attend the inauguration events in person must complete the registration by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than on 8 March at 2.00 p.m. Please identify which events you will be attending. All media representatives must check in at least 20 minutes prior to the start of their event. Media representatives who have not registered will be unable to gain access to the events.
The European Humanities University was founded in Minsk in 1992. For more than a decade EHU was the only non-governmental institution of higher education in Belarus that had been recognised as a University by the Belarusian state. In the summer of 2004, the Government of Belarus forced EHU to cease operations in Minsk. Thanks to the political will of the Government of Lithuania, the European Commission, the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Governments of other countries, public funds and organizations, the University re-opened in Vilnius, where it has been operating since 2005. In February 2006, the Government of Lithuania granted EHU an official status of the Lithuanian university. 1,468 students graduated from EHU based in Vilnius (about 800 graduates have acquired diplomas in Minsk).
