Western Balkans not left behind in our actions despite the dire situation in Ukraine

Not only Visegrad societies are devastated by following the situation in Ukraine – the whole of Europe, including the Western Balkans has been seriously affected. New reality we are living in has already been taken into consideration at the Budapest Balkans Forum, attended by our Executive Director Petr Mareš and his Deputy Marianna Neupauerová recently. Organized by the Institute of Foreign Affairs and Trade and jointly supported by the International Visegrad Fund and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the Forum brought together dozens of experts, political leaders and civil society organisations coming from and dealing with the Western Balkans issues, not least the enlargement. Mr. Ambassador Mareš introduced the Fund and its activities in the Balkans, as well the euro-integration experience of the Visegrad countries and claimed that “well-proven regional cooperation in the Western Balkans is an inevitable precondition for any enlargement progress”. The Forum offered a valuable opportunity to our management to bilaterally discuss the regional prospects of Western Balkans and the role of the Fund in the Balkans with the EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues Miroslav Lajčák, our long standing cooperation with the Western Balkans Fund’s Executive Director Gjergj Murra as well as future prospects of one of our projects implemented by the so called Think Balkans network.

We have a number of projects running in the Balkans and it is our pleasure to support publication of one of the newest publications of the Visegrad Insight on the Western Balkans Scenarios in 2030. We encourage you to read it for yourself and make your opinion. “In all five scenarios there is some truth” said our Deputy Director in the related discussion on What Future Holds for Western Balkans “but neither the speed of integration, nor enlargement methods are most important – at this moment, we have to first take into account the political reality of nowadays and then start the enlargement talks anew”.