Yalta European Strategy
Yalta European Strategy (YES) is a leading forum for discussing Ukraine's European future and global context. It is governed by an international supervisory board: Aleksander Kwaśniewski (Chairman), Carl Bildt, Pat Cox, Wolfgang Ischinger, Stéphane Fouks, Victor Pinchuk (founder), and Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Since 2004, YES has organized high-level international meetings and events in Ukraine and the EU. Its Yalta Annual Meetings are the major international forum in Ukraine to discuss global challenges and the future of Ukraine in Europe. The 16th YES Annual Meeting 'Happiness Now. New Approaches for a World in Crisis' took place on September 12-14, 2019 in Kyiv.
Since 2004, YES has organized high-level international meetings and events in Ukraine and the EU. Its Yalta Annual Meetings are the major international forum in Ukraine to discuss global challenges and the future of Ukraine in Europe. The 16th YES Annual Meeting 'Happiness Now. New Approaches for a World in Crisis' took place on September 12-14, 2019 in Kyiv.
Among the speakers at YES were: Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, former President of Colombia; Olafur Eliasson, artist; Niall Ferguson, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University; Yuval Harari, Professor of the Hebrew University; Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia, Sauli Niinistö, President of Finland; Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University; David Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman at the Carlyle Group; Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University; George Ward, Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance of the London School of Economics.
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What country should we build? It's simple: to overcome the enemies (…) of our Ukrainian happiness– the war, poverty, corruption and envy.
"Mothers" – faces of Ukrainian mothers who lost their children in the war in Donbass. A project buy "Dzerkalo Tuzhnya"
Over 120 representatives of regional executive authorities, regional council members and civic activists as well as 120 students and young leaders from every region of Ukraine participated in the Ukrainian Regional Civil Servants and Young Leaders Sections at the 16th YES Annual Meeting to learn from world leaders and thinkers, and to develop their professional networks. This was yet another contribution by YES towards integrating Ukraine with the world while helping young Ukrainians to build a new Ukraine.
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It takes a lot of wise people to make peace, but it is sometimes enough to have one fool in order to start a war.
Furthermore, at the 16th YES Annual Meeting the PinchukArtCentre presented contemporary art works, including a stroll through a virtual world 'Catharsis' by Jakob Steensen; 'Tulips', a bouquet of multicolored balloon flowers made from mirror-polished stainless steel by Jeff Koons, a project 'Mothers' by 'Dzerkalo Tyzhnya' presenting images of more than 300 faces of mothers who lost their sons during the war in eastern Ukraine, an installation 'Model for a Timeless Garden' with 8 fountains in a black box by Olafur Elliasson as well as paintings by Takashi Murakami and Damien Hirst.
