Peace Blog
The views expressed in the blog are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the IIP.
Stefanie Fenkart reflects on the meetings of young Western Balkans leaders with public officials in France that took place in October 2019 within the framework of the initiative ‘Young generations for the Western Balakns 2030‘. The French view of the EU enlargement process is largely conditioned by domestic trends, failing to appreciate the efforts to meet the EU requirements that countries in the region have made over the past years. Video of public discussion available.
The new economic and social European model of course must also define the role of migration inside Europe (EU and its partners) and from outside Europe. The needs of the economies - depending on implementation of automatization and Artificial Intelligence - must be confronted with perceptions and attitudes of the society at large.
by Hannes Swoboda
At the yearly summer seminar at the island of Sipan close to Dubrovnik I presented the following ideas for a stronger EU -Western Balkan relationship. The summer seminar which is organized by the Croatian Atlantic Council with the support of the Vienna International Institute for Peace is an excellent opportunity of students of the region to discuss hot issues of the Western Balkan region.
Belgrad, Thessaloniki und Athen waren meine jüngsten Reiseziele. Und immer ging es um den Balkan - und seine mögliche (oder sichere ? ) - Zukunft in der Europäischen Union. Weder die EU noch der Balkan (Western Balkans) sind in bester Verfassung. Und die meisten Menschen und dazu zählen auch die PolitikerInnen haben andere Sorgen als über den Beitritt der Süd- und Osteuropäischen Länder nachzudenken.
The Western Balkans remain an important part of EU politics. It is important not only to strengthen the ties between the EU and the region, but also to support the cooperation within the region itself. The Berlin process has a lot to contribute to that cooperation. It was good to include also the economic dimension, but one should not think only about the necessary infrastructure.
Connectivity is a very wide term which covers several kinds of - economic - connections. They may be bilateral, concern a region with similar characteristics, the connection to other regions important for the economic development and even global connections. Very often this connectivity is overlapping and can be of mutual support. And this can be found in the Western Balkans.
Hannes Swoboda on the actual situation of the Balkans in the context of an expert workshop which was followed by a public debate in Vienna organised by the Ustinov Institute, the OIIP (Austrian Institute for International Affairs), the IIP, the BMI (Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights), the Renner Institute and the Institute for Danube Region and Central Europe.
