western balkans

On the 3rd of October, Think Visegrad in Brussels, represented by the Brussels Office of EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, organized a discussion titled "Transforming words into action. How to keep current momentum in EU enlargement?". Experts from think tanks, diplomatic missions and EU institutions dwelled into the renewed focus on EU enlargement, including the initiation of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, the formulation of new strategies and financial incentives for candidate states, and reinforced commitments from the EU. The key challenge moving forward is ensuring that this momentum is sustained and translated into concrete, transformative actions that deliver measurable results.

On September 12th, EUROPEUM’s Brussels Office organized a public conference titled “Making enlargement work again: Supporting Western Balkans through the experiences of Central and Eastern Europe”. Following a keynote speech by H.E. Bálint Ódor, the panel discussions dwelled on the 2004 enlargement, its impacts on the EU and the lessons learned from the process through the perspective of current EU accession of the countries of Western Balkans.

More European money will be channelled to the Western Balkan countries to speed up their accession processes to the European Union and to support their reforms. Our researcher Jana Juzová explained in the morning broadcast of ČRo Plus exactly what the funds will be used for and how the Western Balkan countries are doing with their possible accession to the EU.

We would like to invite you to the debate "EU Enlargement to the Western Balkans: 20 Years After the Thessaloniki Summit", which will take place on October 16th at 17:00 on the premises of the University of Economics in Prague in room NB 169 (Rectors´ Lounge). Address: Churchill 4, Prague 130 67.

This article was written as background material for a panel discussion at the Think Tank Forum: EU Enlargement. The author of the article is senior researcher Jana Juzová. In the article, she discusses, for example, whether the war in Ukraine will speed up the accession negotiations of the Western Balkan countries to the EU.

This article was written as background material for a panel discussion at the Think Tank Forum: EU Enlargement. The authors of the article are Oszkár Roginer, Project Manager, and Žiga Faktor, Head of our Brussels office. In the article, the authors discuss, among other things, elections, political pluralism, civil society, media, and fundamental rights in the Western Balkan countries.

Talking Europe(um) is a podcast which comments on current issues in the European Union. List of episodes, as well as information about where you can listen to the podcast, is in the article.

We would like to invite you to a debate titled "2021 Progress Reports on the Western Balkans: Is the EU enlargement lost?" The online debate will take place on the 21st of December at 10:00.

In an article for INFO.CZ, our researcher Jana Juzová comments on the events of last Wednesday, when another series of EU and regional summits took place in Brdo near Kranj, Slovenia. In her article, she explains why, despite the high ambitions of organizing Slovenia, the meeting brought rather disappointment and disillusionment and what the final joint declaration contains.

Head of our Brussels office Žiga Factor commented on the future of the EU enlargement process for the Bled Strategic Times. In his article, he focuses on the current member states and their attitudes towards the enlargement.

Our research fellow Jana Juzová commented on the current situation in the Balkans for Info.cz. In her article, our researcher explains the tense situation which escalated after two non-papers were published, concerning the possible redistribution of territories and border changes in the Western Balkans.

In a blog post, Jovana Vancevska writes about Western Balkan region and its approach to the topic of climate neutrality and other environmental issues.