Regina Danubia ship will welcome on board heads of the 27 EU countries during the Bratislava summit on September 16. (source: MVSR/TASR)
The unofficial EU summit, held in the premises of the Bratislava Castle on September 16, should offer the EU-27 delegations not only discussions on actual problems of the community, but also cultural activities. However, an inspection done day before the summit has changed previous plans.
During the lunch break, all leaders will board German luxury ship Regina Danubia, called also “Floating Ceremony and Congress Hall on the Danube”, which will take them on a two-hour cruise. The original plan envisaged a lunch spent at the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, which currently exhibits pieces of Joan Miró and the artist group CoBrA within the European Stars project.
The reason for the change of plans is the low levels of the Danube River, the Prime Minister Robert Fico informed the Sme daily at the briefing held on the ship on Thursday, September 15.
After the main meeting, some leaders will go to the Incheba Expo exhibition centre which houses the official press and information centre with a press conference hall, more than 800 working spaces, 40 TV cabins, 20 radio cabins, five national briefing rooms and 30 external stand-up positions. The press conference hall has a capacity of 350 seats and interpretation into Slovak, English, German and French language, the SITA newswire reported.
Similarly to the previous highest-level EU events, also the Bratislava summit got its own logo – a collage of flags of EU countries without the UK, and a flag of the European Union formed in the silhouette of the Bratislava castle. The author, graphic designer Jakub Dušička, chose the silhouette of the castle for easy identification of the venue, as written in the special newsletter introduced by the secretariat of Slovakia’s EU presidency.
While Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will host delegations during the summit, the talks will be led by the President of the European Council Donald Tusk. EU delegations, the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker included, may discuss migration, security and the fight against terrorism, investments’ promotion, proposals on strengthening of the so-called “Juncker investment plan”, digitisation and youth unemployment.
The summit should become the beginning of the so-called Bratislava process which will continue in Malta and Rome during the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in the spring of 2017, SITA wrote.
