President Ivan Gašparovič addressed the plenary session of the summit. With a view to the core theme of the summit, the President in his address emphasised that despite the fact that the region which stretches from the Baltic to the Adriatic seas is referred to as a driving force behind economic growth in Europe, “the fifth year of the application of orthodox anti-crisis measures designed to consolidate public finances and maintain the dynamics of GDP growth is not bringing clearly visible results for citizens.” Slovakia’s head of state posed a question as to whether the measures adopted by the EU to ensure balance between cuts in spending and pro-growth measures would be sufficient.

“There are signs of the economic and financial crisis outgrowing into a social crisis. With all the negative accompanying phenomena – rise in frustration, intolerance, social exclusion and even nationalism, extremism and xenophobia,” President Gašparovič said. In his speech at the plenary session of the summit he called on the participants to advocate a common course of action in designing their approaches, policies, reforms and ways to overcome the current crisis from which, as he put it, “there is no individual way out.“

The Slovak President, who clearly advocates the EU platform, also mentioned the stance of Slovakia in support of the European ambitions of the Western Balkans countries, Ukraine and Moldova. “In the recent past, we have been discussing, internally within the EU, its future shape. We are prepared to further deepen the European integration while respecting specificities of individual countries in terms of their national, language and cultural identity. From Slovakia’s point of view, ‘more Europe” is the best way out of the crisis,” President Gašparovič underscored.

The plenary session of the summit was also addressed by the doyen of the group of presidents, President of Austria Heinz Fischer, as well as other guests.