Daring more Europe! More Democracy in the Western Balkans for a Stronger European Union

The Reflection Fora Series has been organized by the FES over the past years in multiple European countries, and this time around our panelists have critically assessed the idea of European enlargement. With a focus on the EU potential impact and current influence in the Western Balkans, our key contributors to the panel were Mrs. Radmila Shekerinska,Deputy-Prime Minister of North macedonia, alongside Ioannis Armakolas, Senior Fellow at ELIAMEP & Assistant Professor at University of Macedonia.

The round-table was moderated by Florent Marciacq of Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe, who has also recently published a critical reflection on the Enlargement Process through a different perspective – one based on solidarity.

Among the discussed topics, the key takeaways were based on important questions in terms of importance of the EU´s commitment to the region and vice-versa, what exactly is there for the EU´s incentive to continue with the Enlargement Process in the Western Balkans. More precisely, the speakers considered the topic from the perspective of North Macedonia and its social democratic government, that has thus far made historic reforms, becoming a country of progress in terms of security and democracy in the region. The question now is can the government maintain this position of becoming a role model of the region, and how? In any case, experts can only reiterate the remarkable track that North Macedonia has been on recently.

Additionally, to the positive takeaways from the round tables, Deputy-Prime Minister, Mrs. Shekerinska, has also given commentary in a brief interview with the Jean Jaurès Foundation.

The FES looks forward to continuing the Reflection Fora series, with other important topics with experts and functionaries in Europe.