Brussels, 26 October 2010

The EU heads of state and government of the European People’s Party (EPP), along with the Presidents of the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament - Herman VAN ROMPUY, Jose Manuel BARROSO, and Jerzy BUZEK - will meet on 28 October in Meise (Brussels) for the Statutory Summit of the Party.

Wilfried MARTENS, the President of the EPP, will host the Party Summit. EPP Secretary General Antonio LOPEZ-ISTURIZ and the members of the EPP Presidency will be attending.

The EPP Summit participants will include Nicolas SARKOZY (France), Angela MERKEL (Germany), Yves LETERME (Belgium), Jean-Claude JUNCKER (Luxembourg), Donald TUSK (Poland), Silvio BERLUSCONI (Italy), Viktor ORBAN (Hungary), Traian BASESCU (Romania), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS (Latvia), Boyko BORISOV (Bulgaria), Fredrik REINFELDT (Sweden), Lawrence GONZI (Malta) and Iveta RADICOVA (Slovakia). Jyrki KATAINEN, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Finland and EPP Vice President, and Josef PRÖLL, Vice Chancellor of Austria will also be also attending the Party Summit.

In addition, EPP opposition leaders and/or presidents of EPP member-parties will participate at the Summit: Enda KENNY (Fine Gael, Ireland) and EPP Vice President, Antonis SAMARAS (ND, Greece), Janez JANSA (SDS, Slovenia), Nicos ANASTASIADES (DR, Cyprus), and Pedro PASSOS COELHO (PSD, Portugal).

On the agenda will be the preparation of the European Council meeting of 28 and 29 October 2010.

(Note: the Statutory Summit is for EU leaders; non-EU leaders participate in the Enlarged Summit)

EPP Statutory Summit

Date: 28 October from 13:00 to 17:00 – entrance for arrivals opens at 11:00

Venue: The Castle of Bouchout, National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Meise (just outside Brussels)

Note to the Press

• Video footage available via satellite:

Live link: 15.15 to 15.40 CET

INTELSAT 905 (335.5º E)
XP 75K SPOT 2 SLOT 1
UP/14340 V
DL/11540 H
SR-4.28
FEC-3/4-

For technical questions: Maria Urzainqui +32 472 620 173

• EPP will be offering live info and photo feeds from EPP Summit, at our official Twitter and Flickr web pages. Follow us live and get an insight on how our leaders prepare the European Council:

Twitter: live feeds at http://twitter.epp.eu hashtag: #eppsummit

Flickr: live photostream at http://flickr.epp.eu

• A bus will be available for the press at the parking of 18 Rue Van Maerlant, across from the Committee of the Regions (Rue Belliard 99-101) at 10:15 hrs

• For security reasons, please ensure that you bring a valid form of identification: journalists and cameramen will be given access to the venue upon presentation of their accreditation badge, issued by the European Council, or their national press ID card. Journalists without one of these documents must contact the EPP Senior Press Officer, Javier Jiménez, (E-mail: jjimenez@epp.eu  Tel: +32 475 480 446).

Note to editors:
The EPP is the largest and most influential European-level political party of the centre-right, which currently includes 73 member-parties from 39 countries, the Presidents of the Commission, Council, and Parliament, 14 EU and 6 non-EU heads of state and government, 13 members of the European Commission and the largest Group in the European Parliament.

For more information:
Kostas Sasmatzoglou, Spokesman, Tel: +32-2-2854147
Javier Jimenez, Senior Press and Communications Officer, Tel: +32-475480446