The Baltic Development Forum Chairman Uffe Ellemann-Jensen closed the Lennart Meri Conference in Tallinn 30 March. Ellemann-Jensen underlined Lennart Meri’s great importance for the development of Estonia as well as the Baltic Sea Region. Before his decease Lennart Meri was a respected member of the Baltic Development Forum Honorary Board and a speaker at the first BDF Summit in Copenhagen 1999.
The second Lennart Meri Conference, An Ever Elusive Europe, was held on March 28–30 in Tallinn, Estonia.
The Lennart Meri Conference was conceived as a forum for discussing global foreign and security policy issues, in particular those of greatest concern to Europe. The conference seeks to promote the legacy of President Lennart Meri, a leading European statesman and authority on foreign policy, and to ensure that Estonia maintains its active role in solving the problems of Europe. The conference period includes the date March 29, which was both Lennart Meri’s birthday and the day in 2004 when Estonia and six other Central and East European states achieved one of their most cherished foreign policy objectives – NATO membership.
The patron of the conference is President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who also hosted the event. The conference was jointly organised by the International Centre for Defence Studies and the Lennart Meri European Foundation.