Reflection Forum on the run-up to the Trieste Summit on Western Balkans, Trieste (Italy)

26/06/2017 12:17
27/06/2017 12:17
The Reflection Forum, taking place in Trieste on 26–27 June under the title “The Western Balkans in the European Union: Perspectives of a region in Europe?” is dedicated to regional cooperation and will provide a platform for exchange of perspectives between experts working in national and European administrations and institutions as well as researchers affiliated with European think-tanks and universities in the EU and the Western Balkans.
 
The Forum will promote a discussion on the enlargement and the Western Balkans among the policy community, the media and the general public. Three areas of reflection have been outlined: the resurgence of bilateral and regional tensions, the gap between regional cooperation in enabling security matters and the pitfalls of gendered models of economic development.
 
The event will also contribute to setting the basis for the elaboration of reflection papers to be disseminated across the policy community. A new series of outreach events (panel discussions) will follow throughout the Western Balkans as well as in the Berlin Process countries in 2017-2018.
 
The Reflection Forum is organised by the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), Rome; the Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE), Nice/Berlin/Istanbul; the Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe (CFA/ÖFZ), Vienna; in cooperation with a number of relevant institutions and organisations.
 
The event is organised with the support of the CEI and the main event is taking place at the CEI Headquarters in Trieste on 27 June.
 
The programme is available HERE.
 
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In 2014, the Federal Chancellor of Germany launched an intergovernmental process with the countries of the Western Balkans. Its aim is to improve cooperation throughout the region and thereby reinvigorate European integration. The first conference, organised in Berlin, was followed by one in Vienna in 2015 and one in Paris in 2016. A fourth conference will be convened in Trieste, on 12 July 2017. A parallel series of conferences and meetings has been initiated by CIFE, CFA/ÖFZ, IAI and IFRI, together with other institutions, in order to encourage a European dialogue amongst think tanks and academic institutes on the Western Balkans and their European perspective.