Deeper economic integration of the Western Balkans to the European Union – When, how and how much?

SAVE THE DATE - 25 September 2023

12:00 – 14:30 
Hotel Panoramika Design & Spa, Skopje | Zoom

This year’s Civil Society and Think Thank Forum (CSF) is organised as a series of events that bring together civil society representatives, think-tankers and experts from the Western Balkans (WB) to discuss various regional challenges, share best practices, and develop policy recommendations to be presented to decision makers at the Berlin Process Summit.   

The agenda for the event and the registration forms will be send next week. EPI organizes this debate as a hybrid event in Hotel Panoramika Design & Spa in Skopje, as well as only via Zoom.

The European Policy Institute – Skopje (EPI) hosts the Thematic Focus Group (TWG) Access to Single Market as one of the seven TWGs of the Berlin Process CSF in Tirana. Taking note that the topic is a novelty to the CSF agenda, the TWG aimed to strengthen the dialogue between Civil Society – Governments, EU Institutions and ,International institutions involved in the Berlin Process and voice out CSO recommendations on policy-making related to trade and economic policies in the European Union(EU) – Western Balkan(WB) relations.

The main topic of discussion of this TWG is Venues for deeper economic integration of the WB to the EU. Under this broad topic, the members of the working group assembled at three thematic events where they discussed more specifically “Access to the European Single Market”, “Access to European Funds” and “Participation in the European Semester”.  

This public event serves as continuation of inclusive discussions where the panelist on the draft policy paper prepared based on the inputs from the participants in the TWG Access to the European Single Market. The aim of the event is to exchange views on the policy recommendations to refine the TWG arguments and policy recommendations ahead of the Berlin Process Summit in October in Tirana.