Berlin – ESI on EU enlargement in the Western Balkans at the "Balkan Dialogues"

Photo: ESI

ESI's Gerald Knaus was invited to the second Balkan Dialogues conference in Berlin. He spoke at a panel on "Energizing European perspective for the Western Balkans", moderated by Maja Piščević, Senior Fellow, EastWest Institute. The introductory remarks were given by Nikola Dimitrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of North Macedonia:

• Pierre Mirel, Honorary Director General, European Commission
• Milica Delević, European Council on Foreign Relations
• Alexander Soros, Deputy Chair, Open Society Global Board

Gerald made the case for a two stage accession process towards full membership, and for a reformed and merit-based first stage leading to single market accession, launched with all WB6 in 2020. He also explained why this would be excellent not only for the region, and politically attractive for governments in France and in the Netherlands, and good for the EU as a whole.

• Rumeli Observer: 101 On the French Veto, Balkan accession and what next (18 November 2019)
• ESI newsletter: Coup de grâce – Delors and squaring the circle – Norway in the Balkans (25 October 2019)
• ESI background: HOW ARE THEY DOING? European Commission assessments of North Macedonia, Serbia and Albania (April 2018) (29 April 2019)