Event report

Recommendations on how the Western Balkans can contribute to building Europe together: • The European Union should stop regarding the Western Balkans as a region which only drains its energy without contributing anything in return. The most fundamental benefit the EU can receive from the region is the opportunity to prove that it is an agent of change and a powerful geopolitical player by integrating it and completing the job started in 2003. • The Western Balkans can contribute to the European Union by bringing a fresh approach in terms of valuing membership itself, which is especially relevant after Brexit. The EU should take this factor into consideration. • The EU should also recognise other benefits the Western Balkans can provide in terms of security. The potential contributions in these areas are already evidenced by the region being a security provider within the Common Security and Defence Policy missions. • There is also a growing number of start-ups and entrepreneurs in cities across the region. They have demonstrated the ability to provide various business solutions, including in areas such as sustainable development, which are by definition not limited to national borders. This is a substantial way in which the region can contribute to the EU economically, and this factor should also be taken into consideration by the EU. • It is in the interest of the EU to support the youth of the region as the generation that will shape the Western Balkans-EU relations in the years to come. There is a need to improve the understanding of economic migrations, generate better statistics for migration and brain drain and establish mechanisms supporting intra-regional mobility. Sector-based jobs for young people should be generated and circular migration needs to be encouraged. There is also a need for bilateral cooperation between diaspora and the countries of origin in terms of expertise. The EU should encourage these goals through mechanisms at its disposal. Recommendations regarding EU enlargement: • Serious pro-enlargement campaigns are needed in the EU, modelled after what Croatia was doing before its accession in 2013. The aim of these campaigns would be to transform the negative image of the Western Balkans among some of the citizens of Member States. The research has shown that the more experience EU citizens have with the region, the less sceptical they are towards enlargement. • Qualified majority vote should be introduced in the Council of the European Union when it comes to the interim phases of the enlargement process. The Member States would still have to vote unanimously when it comes to the decisions on opening and closing the accession talks. This way, not only would it be harder for individual Member States to block the progress of the accession countries, but it would also be easier for them to implement the reversibility clause when there is serious backsliding. • The EU could increase its absorption capacity vis-à-vis the Western Balkans by increasing the number of portfolios dealing with the region on the European level. This distribution should be done sectorally. • The EU should integrate the Western Balkans in the existing mechanisms such as the Justice Scoreboard, new rule of law reports and the European Semester Framework. This way, they would be able to compare themselves and “compete” with the current EU Member States. Even if they end up getting mostly negative assessments and rankings in the beginning, treating them like Member States would serve as a motivating factor. • The EU should increase the funds available to the Western Balkans and align all the existing financial assistance with the EU Structural Funds model. Earlier enlargements have shown that the absorption capacity of the new Member States was not on the appropriate level from the start, but that they gradually increased with time and experience. Western Balkan countries should be provided the opportunity to develop these capacities earlier. • In particular, the EU should consider providing a more sustainable support to the civil society, which plays an outsized role in the region. This includes both the more sustainable financial support going to organisations, and not specific projects. • Furthermore, civil society should be given a more pronounced political support from the EU by showing zero tolerance for hate speech and smear campaigns that are often directed against some CSOs in the region. The European Commission reports should also reflect whether there was progress or backsliding in the relationship between the governments and the civil society, which is currently not the case. • More examples of public support to the CSOs coming from the EU, instead of the numerous examples of support to the leaders, would also do much for the empowerment of the civil society in the region.