Janusz Bugajski's introduction assessed the current relationship between the United States and countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).  He began by pointing out that, as there is no united Eastern Europe, the U.S. relationship with CEE countries must be evaluated on a country-by-country basis.  He asserted that the greater the perceived threat from Russia, the more likely a country is to hold atlanticist views.  Alternatively, the closer a country is to Western Europe, both geographically and ideologically, the more likely the country is to engage with and be integrated into the EU rather than the United States.   According to Bugajski, the United States must work hard in the coming years to "recapture the support of Central and Eastern Europe."

Vera Rihackova began her presentation by outlining the premise and results of Europeum's recent project on atlanticism in Central and Eastern Europe.  Rihackova and Kral's research, which was executed under the assumption that unconditional atlanticism in CEE countries is slowly fading away, sought to determine whether the level of support for the United States in CEE countries is determined by domestic political constellations.  Rihackova and Kral analyzed the relationship between political parties and support of U.S. policies in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.  They determined that leftist parties in each country tend to be pro-EU and look less to the United States, while parties on the right are more likely to support U.S. policies and value atlanticism.  Rihackova noted that this division between the parties is particularly important as it is often centered on security issues, which tend to be extremely polarizing.  There are also increasingly socioeconomic and nationalistic dimensions to the atlanticist political cleavages within many of the CEE countries.

While Kral and Rihackova's research showed a general left-right political division of atlanticist views in CEE countries, they noted that the political situation differs slightly in each of the six countries they examined.  Kral described the specific political constellations in Poland and the Czech Republic, two countries which have received significant attention in the U.S. media over the last several months due to U.S. missile defense negotiations.  In Poland, the typical left-right division seen between the Law and Justice Party (PiS) and the Civic Platform party, both of which fall on the right side of the political spectrum. Kral focused on the more atlanticist PiS, saying, "NATO is not the alliance of their dreams." PiS views a strong bilateral relationship with the United States as a viable alternative to counting on NATO defense support.  In the Czech Republic the missile defense debate clearly shows the political division of support for U.S. policy.  The left-wing Social Democrats are opposed to the installation of a missile defense radar, while the current center-right government supports the radar.  The division seen in the Czech Republic resembles closely the divisions seen in the five other countries examined in Europeum's research.

Following Rihackova and Kral's presentations, the audience of journalists, diplomats, academics, and think tank researchers had the opportunity to pose questions and further discuss the implications of Europeum's research.  The discussion centered around the relationship between CEE countries and Russia, the affects of the new administration in Poland on Polish-U.S. relations, missile defense, NATO, and the question of how a new U.S. administration might change public opinion towards the United States following the 2008 presidential elections.