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“Balkan Dialogues” in Berlin

“Balkan Dialogues” in Berlin

December 5, 2019 06:00 pm | December 6, 2019 06:00 pm

Deutsche Bank building
Berlin, Germany

Deutsche Bank Filiale, Unter den Linden, Berlin, Germany

Photo of Deutsche Bank filiale Robert Sprotte

BFPE, together with the East-West Institute (EWI) and the Munich Security Conference, and with the support of the Open Society Foundation in Europe and the Balkan Trust for Democracy,

organizes the second Balkan Dialogues, following those held in Belgrade in March.

One of the leitmotifs of the gathering is the sense of urgency, the impression that “things are slipping out of our hands” as citizens leave the region in record numbers.

Taking place is a “perfect storm” of several processes: a stalemate in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina; a European perspective that is now uncertain, after the so-called “French veto”; but also an opportunity that opens with a debate on the “new methodology” of the enlargement process, and the (expected) election of a new Government in Pristina.

The talks in Berlin will serve as a “stocktaking exercise”, a way to determine where we are at the moment and whether there are any prospects for progress in 2020, whether it is to open a negotiation process for Northern Macedonia and Albania, or to reach a comprehensive agreement between Belgrade and Pristina.

The plan is to draw from the two rounds of the Balkan Dialogues a series of proposals, “food for thought” in terms of practical steps that the international community and local actors should take over the next year.

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