While the EU enlargement process has been frozen, a series of parallel initiatives (Berlin Process, European Political Community, Open Balkans) has emerged to keep the flame alive. Still, it doesn’t seem to be enough : weary of being stuck in the waiting room of the EU, the people of Albania, Bosnia-and-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are turning away. It benefits rival great powers like China, Russia, and Turkey.
How to revive the process today? Is EU integration still happening? Is peace threatened again in the Western Balkans? What do Balkan citizens think of it, while they still are emigrating en masse towards the Western and Northern parts of the continent?
To discuss these stakes, crucial for Europe’s future, Le Courrier des Balkans has invited :
• Simonida Kacarska, Director of the European Policy Institute (EPI) (Skopje)
• Florian Bieber, BiEPAG, Director, Centre for Southeast European Studies (Graz)
• Nikola Burazer, Programme Director at the Centre for Contemporary Politics and – Executive Editor at European Western Balkans (Belgrade)
• Visar Ymeri, Director of the think tank Musine Kokalari (Pristina)
A debate moderated by Simon Rico, co-editor in chief of Le Courrier des Balkans.
In partnership with the Paris Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
