From 2-6 November, 2021, The European Movement in Serbia, together with the Institute for Democracy from Skopje (IDSCS), participated in a study visit to the Czech Republic within the regional project “Think Balkans”, which was hosted by the Institute for European Policies “EUROPEUM” from Prague.
Researchers from Northern Macedonia (IDSCS) and Serbia (EminS), together with the Czech think tank EUROPEUM, attended meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) and the “Think Visegrad” consortium, during which they also participated in a closed expert discussion on the topic “EU-Western Balkans Summit – The Morning After”, organized in cooperation with the Embassy of Slovenia in Prague.
During the meetings, participants and hosts of the study visit presented the goals, results and forthcoming activities of the “Think Balkans” project, emphasizing the need for political and financial support through the International Visegrad Fund (IVF) and the Western Balkans Fund (WBF) to formally establish a long-term mechanism of cooperation between the expert communities and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the WB6 countries.
The primary goal of the study visit was to identify the methods used in establishing cooperation and trust between civil society and institutions within the “Think Visegrad” platform. Researchers exchanged experiences on this issue with representatives of state institutions in Prague, primarily with Igor Procházka, Deputy Director of the Southeast Europe Department of the MFA of the Czech Republic, Tomáš Petříček, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Pavel Telička, head of the Czech EU access negotiation team and Lukáš Hadrava, an official of the EU Policy Coordination Department within the Cabinet of the Government of the Czech Republic.
Additionally, the researchers had the opportunity to discuss the Think Balkans mechanism in detail with the think tanks which are part of, or have worked on papers commissioned through the Think Visegrad platform. The researchers met with Alica Kizeková, Coordinator of Think Visegrad for The Institute of International Relations (IIR) Prague, Asya Metodieva, Research Fellow at IIR, Michal Kořan, President of the Board and founder of the Global Arena Research Institute and Vít Dostál and Pavel Havlíček from the Association for International Affairs.
On the last day, the researchers took part in an expert discussion titled “EU-Western Balkans Summit – The Morning After”, organized at Charles University. The keynote speaker was Milena Hrdinková, State Secretary for European Affairs of the Czech Republic, while Peter Grk, Coordinator of the Bled Strategic Forum, Janina Hřebíčková, Special Envoy for the Western Balkans of the MFA of the Czech Republic, Alexis Dutertre, French Ambassador to the Czech Republic and Zoran Nečev, a senior IDSCS researcher participated as speakers. The event was moderated by Jana Juzova, Research Fellow at EUROPEUM.
This project is financially supported by the International Visegrad Fund and implemented by IDSCS in coordination with the partners European Movement in Serbia (EMinS), Platforma CiviKos from Kosovo*, Politikon Network from Montenegro, Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) from Albania, Humanity in Action from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Centre for European Perspective (CEP) from Slovenia, Centre for Eastern Studies from Poland (OSW), Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade from Hungary (IFAT), the Research Centre of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA) from Slovakia, and EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy (EUROPEUM) from the Czech Republic.
