President Zelenskyy addresses the book world

At the joint invitation of the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Federation of European Publishers, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make an intervention on Thursday, 20 October at 12.30. His speech will be followed by interventions by Jesús Badenes del Río, CEO of Grupo Planeta (Spain), representing the Guest of Honour, and Oleksander Afonin, President of the Ukrainian Publishers and Booksellers Association. The event is open to the public and will take place in Room Harmonie, Congress Centre.

It goes without saying that all participants to the Fair are convinced that books are key to a better world, and this is also true for Ukraine. Today and tomorrow, all book professionals in Ukraine must be in a capacity to resume their activities and to promote their culture, to their citizens and to the world. For Ukrainian literature to be present at the Frankfurt Book Fair with a large stand and many publishers present, is also an act of resistance and it is the duty of the book world to support their efforts to preserve and promote their books. European publishers and publishers from all over the world have already shown support but this is only the beginning, and we need to involve the States too.

Peter Kraus vom Cleff said, “with FEP and with the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, since the start of the invasion, we have reached to our Ukrainian counterparts and offered support. What Ukraine is doing now, is standing for our rights and our values. The whole book community must continue its mobilisation so that publishing in Ukraine can remain vivid. I thank President Zelensky to have chosen Frankfurt for his intervention and invite all colleagues to join us”.

Juergen Boos said, “The Frankfurt Book Fair has maintained close relations with publishers, authors and industry-related institutions in Ukraine for many years and has carried out numerous trade fair participations, publishers’ training courses and specialist programmes in recent years. This year, it is very important to us to enable and support the networking of Ukrainian colleagues with their partners worldwide and to let many Ukrainian intellectuals, publishers, authors and cultural workers have their say at the Frankfurt Book Fair to report on the current situation. We want to create publicity and raise awareness of what is at stake.

Due to a last-minute commitment, the European Commissioner for Culture had to cancel her participation. Mrs Gabriel has, since the beginning, been actively involved in developing support for Ukraine through networking and special calls. FEP will share the interventions with the Commissioner and ensure that the European Commission continues to support Ukraine including the book sector.