What do the Western Balkans think about the EU? And why?

We are happy to invite you to another instalment of our event series Europe seen from the Outside:

What do the Western Balkans think about the EU? And why?

with Prof. Tanja Miščević,
Chief Negotiator for the Accession of the Republic of Serbia to the EU

Talk and Discussion with light lunch

Tuesday, 21 November 2017
12:30 –2:00 pm (lunch from 12:00 pm)
ProjektZentrum Berlin der Stiftung Mercator,  Neue Promenade 6, 10178 Berlin

To register: [email protected]

Serbia became accession candidate in 2012, Montenegro in 2010. All six states of the Western Balkans – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia – hope to eventually join the European Union. A lot of hope is put in the accession process which is expected to help increase rule of law and fight corruption in the region.

At the same time, many European voters and EU member states are sceptical about further enlargement. In 2014, Jean-Claude Juncker announced a 5-year stop to accessions. There is criticism on the little progress made by Serbia since the opening of the first accession chapters. Serbian accession within the next few years appears unlikely. Could the negotiations fail? What interest does the EU and Germany have in Serbia and the Western Balkans? And how does Europe and the EU look from the region?

To discuss these and other questions, we are very happy to welcome Tanja Miščević, Chief Negotiator for the Accession of the Republic of Serbia to the EU. Following her talk, we will discuss the issues with Vessela Tcherneva, Senior Director for Programmes and Head of ECFR Sofia Office. Ulrike Franke, ECFR Policy Fellow will moderate the discussion.

The event will be held in English. We will start with a light lunch at 12:00 pm, the talk and discussion begin at 12:30 pm. Please RSVP until 16. November by email to [email protected].

This event is part of the series Europe seen from the outside in which ECFR, in cooperation with Stiftung Mercator, aims at seeing Europe from abroad. Previous instalments presented the views from Russia, the Maghreb, Turkey, the US, the UK, Israel, India, and Ukraine. The discussion on the Western Balkans follows the publication of Return to instability: How migration and great power politics threaten the Western Balkans, published in 2016 by Francisco de Borja Lasheras, Vessela Tcherneva and Fredrik Wesslau, and the commentary What Europe can do for the Western Balkans by Vessela Tcherneva.