The German Marshall Fund of the United States

On October 22 and 23, GMF officially launched the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation (BST)in Bucharest, Romania. Modeled after the successful Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD), the launch brought together policymakers, academics, civil society representatives, and members of the media from the United States and Europe.

On October 22, GMF, together with the Brussels-based thinktank Bruegel, hosted an event on "Safety nets and transatlantic answers to globalization: Lessons from Europe." This was the second gathering in a series of GMF-Bruegel roundtables hosted in Brussels and Washington, DC, seeking to advance policy discussions around transatlantic comparative responses to globalization.

On October 22, GMF hosted Pierre Jacquet, Chief Economist of the French Development Agency (AFD) and a panel discussion with Director of Capital Studies at the Milken Institute Dr. Glenn Yago, COO of Microfinance International Corporation (MFIC) Kai Schmitz, and GMF Program Officer Jonathan White, that examined the approaches challenges of making capital more accessible to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in the developing world.

On October 19, the German Marshall Fund hosted a roundtable discussion on "Global Financial Stability - Transatlantic Responses to the Subprime Lending Crisis," with members of the German Bundestag representing the finance, budget and economic development committees, and a group of American and European financial experts.

On October 5, GMF hosted a luncheon discussion on "Services and development: Finding a way forward for Doha." Speakers at the event included Christine Bliss, Assistant USTR for Services and Investment; Bob Vastine, President of the Coalition of Service Industries; and Aaditya Mattoo, Lead Economist of the World Bank's Development Research Group. Randall Soderquist, Director of GMF's Economic Policy Program, moderated the discussion.

On October 5, GMF hosted a presentation and discussion entitled "EU and U.S. policy toward Eastern Europe: A joint or separate approach?" with Ambassador Jiři Schneider, Program Director at the Prague Security Studies Institute, and Alexander Duleba, Research Director at the Slovak Foreign Policy Association. Peter Van Praagh, Senior Director for Wider Europe at GMF, moderated the event.  The presentation was the second in a series of events featuring the work of prominent European think tanks who were recipients of GMF's 2006-2007 Transatlantic Policy Research grants.