Honorary Minister Pär Stenbäck is Co-Founder of the European Cultural Parliament (ECP) and Chairman of the ECP Senate. He had a long mandate as Member of the Finnish Parliament and was Chairman of the Swedish People’s Party 1977-1985. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister of Education in Finland and remains a prominent profile in Finnish politics and social debate. He has also been Secretary General for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva, later Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers in Copenhagen, co-founder and Director of the International Youth Foundation and founding Board Member of the International Crisis Group. Minister Stenbäck has been involved in many International missions for Peace or Humanitarian initiatives, including mediation in conflict zones, e.g. in the Mideast. He has held many commissions of trust in various organizations, including in cultural life. He is a regularly contributing columnist in the daily newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet, Helsinki. He is author of several books, i. a. on world affairs, on conflicts and disasters, on democracy and on Finnish politics. He is married, has two sons and grandchildren.
Karl-Erik Norrman is Founder (2002) and Secretary General of ECP, the only Pan-European forum for cultural personalities from all sectors of Arts. The ECP has 160 members from 43 European countries. The ECP initiates projects and workshops, meets in plenary session in different European cities each year and discusses broad European themes, such as Democracy, Intercultural dialogue, European Cohesion, Media quality, etc. As a Swedish diplomat for 30 years he served i. a. in Moscow, Peking, Geneva and Rome, dealing mainly with foreign policy, trade negotiations, cultural affairs, development cooperation, humanitarian affairs and the United Nations. As Ambassador since 1989 he was posted in Spain and Swedish Commissioner General at EXPO 92 in Seville and in the 1990ies head of the Cultural Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. From 1995 he was Executive Member of the Commission for Sweden Promotion Abroad at the Foreign Ministry. Norrman has also been an opera soloist (tenor) and is the author of more than 30 books, i. a. about Democracy (“The Crisis of Democracy”, in Swedish 2008), World Population matters (2012), Germany, China, India, Mongolia, UN, theatre, opera, design, food, European identities and football. His latest production is an audio book in English about Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi. He is a lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Diplomacy, ICD, Berlin, and participates in the public debate in Swedish, German, British, Scandinavian and other International media and conferences. He is member of several International Boards, e.g. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, London, Vizar Architectural Competition, Sofia, Music Mind Trust, Sussex, Harald Edelstam Human Rights Foundation, Stockholm, Fondazione Love Difference, Biella. He is married to German opera singer Doris Soffel, has two children and lives in Stockholm and Berlin.
Other Co-Founders were:
Dr. Michael Klett, Chairman of the famous Editorial Haus Klett-Gruppe, Stuttgart, one of Europe´s leading producers of learning materials for universities and schools.
Mr. Ove Joanson, Stockholm, former Director General of the Swedish Radio, the leading public service Broadcasting house in Sweden and former vice president of EBU, the European Broadcasting Union.