By Barbara UnmüBig. Heinrich Böll Foundation.
November 1st. 2010

Ladies and Gentlemen, Commoners,

It is a very special honour to be your host here at the Berlin home base of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and to welcome you to this working meeting. Thank you for the interest you have shown – and thank you for coming here from near and far to take part in our discussions over the next days.

Welcome to Germany! I would like to start by describing some of the current issues in our country that are closely related to the subject of this conference:

Welcome, commoners! And thank you for traveling from India and Canada, from Croatia and Thailand, from Argentina and the United States, from South Africa and Brazil, from dozens of other countries.