As part of the ‘Cooperation Instrument for the Western Balkans Think Tanks – THINK BALKANS’ project, between 25 and 29 January in Warsaw, OSW – Centre for Eastern Studies and IDSCS – Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” Skopje coordinated the fourth and final on-site study visit by the Western Balkans (WB6) researchers to the Visegrad Group (V4) capitals.
Researchers from North Macedonia (IDSCS), Albania (AIIS) and Kosovo* (CiviKos) together with their local V4 think tank host OSW attended meetings with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland (MFA Poland), attended a closed seminar with think tank representatives and participated in the final event of the Think Balkan project.
In Warsaw, Zoran Nechev, Head of Centre for European Integrations within IDSCS, Anamarija Velinovska, Junior Researcher at IDSCS, Donika Emini, Executive Director of CiviKos Platform and Ledion Krisafi, Senior Researcher within AIIS were hosted by Marta Szpala, Senior Fellow at OSW.
During the meetings, the participants and hosts of the study visit presented the goals, deliverables, and upcoming activities of the Think Balkans project and called for future political and financial support through International Visegrad Fund and Western Balkans Fund, necessary for the official establishment of the permanent mechanism for cooperation between WB6 expert community and WB6 MFAs.
The researchers discussed the Think Balkans project with the Polish MFA representatives Weronika Staniec Porczyk and Mateusz Gniazdowski. Additionally, they had the opportunity to discuss recent trends and challenges within the Western Balkan at a closed seminar organized with think tanks representatives including Tomasz Żornaczuk from the Polish Institute for International Affairs (PISM), Konrad Pawłowski and Jan Muś, from the Institute of Central Europe (IEŚ) and Łukasz Kobeszko, Andrzej Sadecki and Marta Szpala from the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW). The researchers also attended the final event of the Think Balkans project “Regional cooperation in the Western Balkans and EU accession” on 28 January 2022.
This study visit was the final study visits in the Visegrad Group capitals. Previously, the WB researchers visited Prague (2-6 November 2021), Budapest (8-12 November 2021), Bratislava (17-21 January 2022)
This project is financially supported by the International Visegrad Fund and implemented by IDSCS in coordination with the partners European Movement in Serbia (EMinS), Platforma CiviKos from Kosovo*, Politikon Network from Montenegro, Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) from Albania, Humanity in Action from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Centre for European Perspective (CEP) from Slovenia, Centre for Eastern Studies from Poland (OSW), Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade from Hungary (IFAT), the Research Centre of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA) from Slovakia, and EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy (EUROPEUM) from the Czech Republic.
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UN Security Council resolution 1244 and the International Court of Justice Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.