Joschka Fischer, the former Vice-federal Chancellor of Germany is the guest speaker of  "Energy 2009, in Central & Eastern Europe" Conference organized by FORUM INVEST between November 2-4, 2009 at Athenee Palace Hilton, Bucharest, his main issues of debating being Energy security and oil& gas transportation systems.

Joschka Fischer, former Green Party leader and foreign minister in the former Social Democratic Party (SPD)-Green government-has taken a post as adviser to the Nabucco pipeline project, in which the German RWE company is also involved.  Fischer´s job now is to speed up the rival Nabucco project, which is supported by both the European Union and the American government, and seeks to transport natural gas from the Caspian region to Europe, bypassing Russia en route.

The project has been at a virtual standstill for some years. The crux of the Nabucco project lies in Turkey. The planned pipeline is to run from Ankara eastward to the Azerbaijani port of Baku on the Caspian Sea, via Georgia. The gas is then to flow westward over Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, to Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany.

In a country not especially known for the colorful personalities of its politicians in the modern era, Germans give their enigmatic and outspoken foreign minister Joschka Fischer high marks. Fischer has served in two consecutive coalition governments headed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and proved an adept diplomat on the international stage.

But his early years as a radical agitator, and evidence thereof, would return later to nearly derail his political career. Some political pundits see Fischer as a leading candidate for the newly created post of foreign minister for the European Union, which will even have its own diplomatic corps.