Zoran Nechev heads the Center for EU integration of the Institute for Democracy, a think tank organisation from North Macedonia. He is a Europe’s Futures Fellow 2021/22 at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM) in Vienna. Mr. Nechev has been working as an associate fellow at DGAP since July 2021. He specialises in EU-Western Balkans relations, external dimensions of justice and home affairs, corrosive capital and malign influences. Previously, he has been an academic guest at the Center for International and Comparative Studies, ETH Zürich examining the effects of EU’s conditionality policy on rule of law in the Western Balkans. As a former Senior Associate Fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies, he was involved in activities related to the ‘Global Strategy’, resilience and Balkan Futures. Mr. Nechev is currently a PhD candidate at Institute for European Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.