The EU heads of state and government of the European People’s Party (EPP), along with the Presidents of the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament – Herman VAN ROMPUY, Jose Manuel BARROSO, and Jerzy BUZEK – will meet on the evening of 15 September in Meise (Brussels) for the Enlarged Summit of the Party (details below). Wilfried MARTENS, the President of the EPP, will host the Party Summit. EPP Secretary General Antonio LOPEZ-ISTURIZ and the members of the EPP Presidency, as well as Joseph DAUL, Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, will be attending.

The EPP Summit participants will include Angela MERKEL (Germany), Francois FILLON (France), Jean-Claude JUNCKER (Luxembourg), Donald TUSK (Poland), Silvio BERLUSCONI (Italy), Viktor ORBAN (Hungary), Traian BASESCU (Romania), Jan-Peter BALKENENDE (the Netherlands), Yves LETERME (Belgium), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS (Latvia), Boyko BORISOV, (Bulgaria), and Iveta RADICOVA (Slovakia). Jyrki KATAINEN, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Finland and EPP Vice President, Karel SCHWARZENBERG Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic, and Carl BILDT, Foreign Minister of Sweden, will be also attending the Party Summit.

Also, heads of state and government of non EU countries will participate at the Summit – Jadranka KOSOR (Croatia), Nikola GRUEVSKI (FYROM), Sali BERISHA (Albania), Mikheil SAAKASHVILI (Georgia), Vlad FILAT (Moldova) – as well as Mladjan DINKIC, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economy of Serbia.

In addition, EPP opposition leaders and/or presidents of EPP member-parties will participate at the Summit: Enda KENNY, (Fine Gael, Ireland) and EPP Vice President, Janez JANSA (SDS, Slovenia), Nicos ANASTASIADES (DR, Cyprus), Pedro PASSOS COELHO (PSD, Portugal), Mart LAAR (IRL, Estonia) and Yulia TYMOSHENKO (Batkivshchyna, Ukraine).

On the agenda will be the preparation of the European Council meeting of 16 September 2010.

EPP Statutory Summit:

Date: 15 September, from 19:30 to 22:00 – entrance for arrivals opens at 18:00

Venue: The Castle of Bouchout, National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Meise (just outside Brussels)

Note to the Press:

• There will be a family photo of EPP leaders at the beginning of the meeting

• Video footage via satellite:

INTELSAT 905 (335.5º E) XP 78K SPOT2 SLOT 1
UL: 14460 V
DL: 11660 H
SR:4.28
FEC:3/4

Footage will be available at 20:45 – 21:10 CET
For technical questions: Maria Urzainqui +32 472 620 173

• EPP will be offering live info and photo feeds from EPP Summit, at our official Twitter and Flickr web pages. Follow us live and get an insight on how our leaders prepare the European Council

Twitter: live feeds at http://twitter.epp.eu

Flickr: live photostream at http://flickr.epp.eu

• A bus will be available for the press at the parking of 18 Rue Van Maerlant, across from the Committee of the Regions (Rue Belliard 99-101) at 17:15 hrs

• For security reasons, please ensure that you bring a valid form of identification: journalists and cameramen will be given access to the venue upon presentation of their accreditation badge, issued by the European Council, or their national press ID card. Journalists without one of these documents must contact the EPP Press Officer, Javier Jiménez, (E-mail: jjimenez@epp.eu  Tel: +32 475 480 446).

Note to editors:

The EPP is the largest and most influential European-level political party of the centre-right, which currently includes 73 member-parties from 39 countries, the Presidents of the Commission, Council, and Parliament, 15 EU and 6 non-EU heads of state and government, 13 members of the European Commission and the largest Group in the European Parliament.

For more information:

Kostas Sasmatzoglou, Spokesman, Tel: +32-2-2854147
Javier Jimenez, Press Officer, Tel: +32-475480446