55th Annual Meeting of the Ifo Institute

On 22 June 2004 the Ifo Institute held its 55th Annual Meeting. The official Annual General Meeting and the meeting of the Board of Trustees took place in the morning at the Haus der bayerischen Wirtschaft. The public portion in the afternoon was moved to the Aula of the Ludwig Maximilian University because of the enormous interest in the speakers. More than 800 guests, including numerous representatives of member firms of the Ifo Institute and of Bavarian and Federal ministries, intently followed the full and varied programme. After the welcoming words of Prof. Sinn and the Rector of the University, Prof. Bernd Huber, the President of the Czech Republic, Prof. Ing. Václav Klaus, spoke on EU enlargement. Following an introduction by Minister Eberhard Sinner, Prof. Sinn presented the latest Ifo economic forecast. The afternoon concluded with a panel discussion on tax reform in Germany. Moderated by Nikolaus Piper, editor of the business section of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the participants included Prof. Paul Kirchhof, Director of the Institute for Finance and Tax Law at the University of Heidelberg, Friedrich Merz, MdB, Deputy Head of the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag, Prof. Wolfgang Wiegard, Head of the Council of German Economic Advisors and Prof. Hans-Werner Sinn. The Ifo forecast and the statements of the podium participants are published in this issue. The speech of Václav Klaus will be published in Ifo Schnelldienst 13/2004.