The Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” – Skopje in cooperation with the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB), the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG), Open Society Foundation for Albania, and the EU Policy Hub on the conference entitled “The Future of the Berlin Process” promoted the publication “Towards the more visible, efficient and effective: Berlin Process 2.0”, concerning the future developments of the Berlin Process.
In the continuation of the process that began with the German initiative after the announcement in 2014 to pause the EU enlargement process, more actors should be involved than the governments of the Western Balkan countries. The process should also include parliaments, civil society organizations, the youth and administration staff in order to be effective.
The participants on the conference also stressed that it will be helpful if the WB countries have regular meetings aside from yearly summits in EU capitals as well as the importance to give more visibility to the process in domestic public.
Being the only high-level political venue that solely focuses on the Western Balkan countries, the Berlin Process without any doubt is a much-needed enhancement in direction of preparing these countries for future EU membership. The brief explores the modalities for increasing the visibility, achieving greater efficiency and ensuring effectiveness of the process.
The Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, Mr Bujar Osmani, Mr Igor Bandović, Senior Manager at the European Fund for Balkans. Mr Carlo Romeo, Italian Ambassador to Macedonia and Mr Charles Garrett, UK Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Macedonia delivered keynote speeches on the conference. Mr. Zoran Nechev from IDSCS and Mr Jovan Nicic presented the policy brief “Towards the more visible, efficient and effective: Berlin Process 2.0”.
The publication is available on the following link:
Towards the more visible, efficient and effective: Berlin Process 2.0