While the Western Balkans countries are focused on negotiating their accession to the European Union, they must not overlook proposed potential structural changes in the EU that would have a profound impact on Enlargement Policy and fostering regional connections. With the vague future of the Western Balkans countries’ accession prospects, reform of the functioning of…
Despite the progress made within the EU accession process and the gradual harmonization of the institutional framework with the acquis and European standards in this field, media freedom remains at an unsatisfactory level in all states in the region. While in some of them there is a slow process of improvement towards the desired standards, in others…
Photo: Adam Jones Adam63 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons The fact that the EU’s newly released Enlargement Strategy for the countries of the Western Balkans mainstreams regional reconciliation and transitional justice (TJ) as one of the three crucial areas that require comprehensive and convincing reforms should not come as a surprise. This emphasis on reconciliation and…
Photo: Medija centar Beograd [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons In his last interview, published in the magazine Vreme in September 2017, Oliver Ivanović stated: “Let me be clear. The people (the Serbs in the northern Kosovo) are not afraid of the Albanians, but of the Serbs, the local strongmen and the criminals, who drive around in…
Dr. Simonida Kačarska, Director of the European Policy Institute in Skopje, Macedonia In his last State of the Union address, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker reminded us of the obvious: that there would be no enlargement during the mandate of this Commission. He also underlined that the credible enlargement perspective for the Western Balkans…
The present call for applicants seeks two research fellows to conduct a three months research stay at the University of Graz, Austria, between 1 December 2017 and 28 February 2018, assisting the research efforts of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG), commissioned by the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB). As required in…
The Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG) drafted a discussion paper The Future of the Berlin Process. The goal of this policy brief is to outline the most tangible outputs of the previous Western Balkan Summits, and to propose several structural changes that need to be introduced after the 2018 London Summit in order…
Main sources of current instability in the region and ways to mitigate them were elaborated during a lunch discussion, held in Brussels today, on the topic of BiEPAG’s recent report “The Crisis of Democracy in the Western Balkans. An Anatomy of Stabilitocracy and the Limits of EU Democracy Promotion”. The gathering was organised by Open…
