The Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies is among the top Brussels think tanks. It was founded in 2007 as the official foundation of the European People's Party (EPP). Every year it organises the economic conference Economic Ideas for Europe in one of the European metropolises.
After London, Madrid, Dublin and Helsinki, the Centre's leadership decided to hold the prestigious conference for the first time behind the former Iron Curtain, and chose Bratislava as the venue. It put the organisation of the conference in the hands of HUGO BACH.
The main speakers included the President of the Slovak Republic Andrej Kiska, the Centre's President Mikuláš Dzurinda, the US Ambassador to the EU Anthony Luzzatto Gardner, Portuguese Minister of Labour Pedro Mota Soares, former Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, former Minister of Finance Ivan Mikloš and State Secretary at the German Ministry of Finance Steffen Kampeter. The entire conference programme was broadcast live on martenscentre.eu.