Eight hundred people gathered at the ninth Lower Silesian Political and Economic Forum in Krzyżowa, southwest Poland, Nov. 9. Danuta Hübner, EU commissioner for regional policy, was the honorary patron of this year's event.

Ivan Naydenov, the Bulgarian ambassador to Poland, was the special guest of the forum. Other guests taking the floor were Minister of Regional Development Grażyna Gęsicka; Henryka Bochniarz, president of the Lewiatan Polish Confederation of Private Employers; Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, former prime minister and now executive director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; Tomasz Nowakowski, a minister at the Office of the Committee for European Integration, and Bogdan Zdrojewski, a Sejm deputy.

The forum aims to promote a sense of common responsibility for the future of Europe. This year's debate focused on the way Lower Silesia is developing.