Amb. (Ret.) Martin BútoraAmb. Bútora is Honorary President of the Institute for Public Affairs and Program Director of 'European Integration and Transatlantic Relations' Program. In the past he has worked as a university teacher, diplomat, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the United States (1999 – 2003. In November 1989, Mr. Bútora was one of the founders of the political movement Public Against Violence. In the spring of 1990, as a member of its Coordinating Committee (KC VPN) he took part in crafting Movement's election program - Chance for Slovakia. In the period of 1990- 1992 he held a position of a Human Rights Advisor to the President of Czech and Slovak Federal Republic Václav Havel, and the post of Director of the Human Rights Section in the Office of the President. In 1997 he co-founded the Institute for Public Affairs and served as its first president.
H.E. János Martonyi
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Hungary
H.E. János Martonyi became Minister of Foreign Affairs after the elections last year. Previously, in 2002 – 2009, he was a full-time professor and managing partner in the law firm Martonyi és Kajtár Baker & McKenzie, Budapest. During his impressive career, he was head of department, and then senior head of department at the Foreign Trade and Trade ministries from 1984. In 1989 – 1990 he was government commissioner in charge of privatization. In 1990 – 1991, he served as State Secretary in the Ministry of International Economic Relations and in 1991 – 1994, as State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1998 – 2002, he was Foreign Minister in the centre-right government of Hungary. He is actively involved in politics as the President of the Free Europe Centre for European Integration of the Fidesz Hungarian Civic Union, a member of the Executive Board of the Centre for European Studies, a foundation of the European People's Party based in Brussels, a member of the Batthyány Society of Professors and a member of the advisory board of the weekly Heti Válasz.
Mikołaj Dowgielewicz
State Secretary for European Affairs of the Republic of Poland
Mikołaj Dowgielewicz is State Secretary for European Affairs and Economic Policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Representative of the Government responsible for the government bodies’ preparations for the Polish EU Council Presidency. He worked at the Political Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and then as the Adviser to the President of the Commission of European Law of the Sejm and as the Head of Academic Service at the College of Europe (2002-2003). In 2003 he began his work in Brussels as the Adviser to the President of the European Parliament, Mr. Pat Cox. In 2004 he took the post of the European Commission Spokesperson for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy and later, in 2007, began work in the Cabinet of the Vice-President of the European Commission, Ms. Margot Wallström. From December 2007 to 31st December 2009 he was the Secretary of the Committee for European Integration and Secretary of State at the Office of the Committee for European Integration.
H.E. Karel Schwarzenberg
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
H.E. Karel Schwarzenberg was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs after the elections in July last year. In 1990 he was appointed member of the Advisory Board of the first Czech president Václav Havel. Later that year, he became his Counsellor until 1992, when he was assigned to lead the first OSCE Delegation in Nagorno-Karabakh after the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan broke out. After a longer pause between 1992 and 2004, he became Member of the Senate of the Czech Republic, Member of the Committee on EU Affairs and the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security (2005 – 2007). In the meantime, he served as the member of the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic in the CE Parliamentary Assembly (since 2005), later, as member of the Permanent Representation in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly until 2007, when he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs for the first time.
