Western Balkans 2 EU #wb2eu: Is the EU losing the Western Balkans and/or vice versa?

For a long time, the Central and East European new member states such as Slovenia were a symbol of successful Europeanisation and of the strength of the enlargement policy as the most important foreign policy tool of the European Union. In the last decade, they have taken a central role in the divide over fundamental norms and rules such as independent judiciary, media and civil society, thus ultimately playing in favour of the enlargement fatigue in the Western Europe. What did Ursula Von der Leyen’s tour in September say about the reformed enlargement policy being up to the institutional and geopolitical challenges in the region? What is the climate in the European Council as seen from the outcome of the informal EU-Western Balkans Summit? Are multi-ethnic countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia losing their grounds vis-à-vis the strongmen and growing nationalisms in the region? Are we witnessing a re-emergence of the ethnic conflicts as a result of the weakening of the multilateral-normative framework? Join us at the 2nd Ideas go public Lab of the "Western Balkans 2 EU" Jean-Monnet Network at the University of Ljubljana in Ljubljana. Our guests are: Peter Grk, Head of the Bled Strategic Forum (BSF) department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia Marko Makovec, Director/Deputy Managing Director, Western Europe, Western Balkans, Turkey and United Kingdom, European External Action Service (EEAS) Donika Emini, Executive Director of CiviKos Platform, Kosovo Dimitar Nikolovski, Director of the Centre for European Strategies (EUROTHINK), North Macedonia Senada Šelo Šabić, Senior Research Associate, Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO), Croatia Moderated by Vedran Džihić, Senior Researcher, Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip), WB2EU network **************************************************************************** Learn more about the #wb2eu Project at www.wb2eu.eu