The Federal Foreign Office and the Foundation for the Study of the SED Dictatorship are hosting a ceremony at the Federal Foreign Office today (22 August) to celebrate the 60th birthday of former Foreign Minister Markus Meckel. The ceremony is being held to honour Markus Meckel’s work to promote democracy and freedom in Central and Eastern Europe.

The speech honouring the civil rights activist, the GDR’s only freely elected Foreign Minister and current Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for the Study of the SED Dictatorship, will be given by Minister of State Michael Link, Member of the German Bundestag.

For the subsequent panel discussion on “the promotion of freedom and democracy as a dimension of European foreign policy”, the following participants will join former Foreign Minister Markus Meckel:

- Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, MEP, Member of the European Parliament’s Committee for Foreign Affairs,

- Dietmar Nietan, Member of the German Bundestag, Member of the Bundestag Committee on the Affairs of the European Union,

- Professor Istvan Gyarmati, President of the International Centre for Democratic Transition, Budapest,

- Dr Joerg Forbig, The German Marshall Fund of the United States.