Soirée internationale with Indrek Tarand

This Soirée, we will have Indrek Tarand as special guest speaker. Born in Talinn (Estonia) during the times of Soviet Union in the building which hosts now the Central Bank, he wanted to become already as a boy a fighter for justice, liberty and democracy. With one meter and 91 centimetres too small to become a top player, he stopped his basketball career and became a Soviet soldier near St. Petersburg and in Siberia – and narrowly escaped from being sent to the Afghanistan war. In Tartu he studied history at the second oldest university in Tsarist Russia (founded 1632 by the Swedish King) and European studies in Bologna (founded in 1088, oldest university in the world).

His government asked him back to Estonia as special representative to improve the dialogue in his country – and he prevented the creation of a break-away province of the type of Transnistria. He was asked as well to be in charge of the National War Museum which he transformed into a peace museum. After his father became Prime Minister, he was confronted directly with party, parliament and government policy – and presented himself as candidate for the 2009 European Parliament (EP) elections. As he was not fond of any of the political parties in his country, he presented himself as independent candidate. With 26%, he was elected and joined as independent the Green Group. As someone representing the new generation, he (without any party affiliation and support) became even number two in the 2011 Estonian Presidential elections. Re-elected to the EP in 2014, he concentrates of the institutional development of the EU, energy and securitypolicy and was co-rapporteur for the 2017 EU Budget.

The Soirée Internationale is…

Michal Mlcousek from TIME FOR WORDS (family-owned business with expertise in film, TV and media production over three generations) was at one of the last Soirée International and produced a five minute video. 

Once the roughly 40 participants comprising never less than 25 different national backgrounds have arrived, I shortly introduce each participant. After having filled your plate at the hot buffet (as often as you want: à volonté), you are supposed to sit at several tables in order to give many others the pleasure of your company. At every soirée a special speaker introduces his work, followed by questions and answers. At the end everyone is asked to contribute to the costs of the dinner.