Ditchley Park – ESI at symposium on the Western Balkans
ESI’s Kristof Bender participated in a Symposium on "The Western Balkans: How to secure democracies under potential threat and accelerate integration into the EU and Euro-Atlantic community?” held on 31 October and 1 November 2024 at Ditchley Park in the UK. The off-record discussions centred on the Western Balkans' EU integration process and questions of security and the threat to stability in the Western Balkans.
Other participants included Matthew Rycroft, permanent secretary of the UK Home Office, Irena Radovic, governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Elvira Habota, director of the Directorate for European Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, René Troccaz, French special envoy for the Balkans, Milica Delevic, director for competitiveness, governance and political affairs at the EBRD, Madeline Knox, head of the Western Balkans department at the UK Foreign Office, and Dritan Abazovic, former prime minister of Montenegro.
- ESI proposal: “Preventing violence – transform Kosovo dialogue”
- ESI report: “Scoreboard - The true state of accession - What the Commission assessments reveal”
- ESI proposal: “End the turtle race How the EU can address the crisis of the accession process”
- ESI proposal: “Offer the four freedoms to the Balkans, Ukraine, and Moldova For a merit-based EU accession process with a credible goal”
- ESI proposal: “47 again? Russia out, Kosovo in Support Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe”