News and updates from BCSDN and the region
The latest Berlin process summit yielded three agreements facilitating the flow of people in the Western Balkans, which took the six governments two years to negotiate. While the German hosts of the gathering commend this achievement, one may wonder: can regional cooperation in the Western Balkans go beyond technical issues? Could the Berlin process be
Read more →An article serving as a background material for a panel discussion at the Think Tank Forum: EU Enlargement examines the state of democracy and the rule of law in the WB6 countries. It stresses that ever prolonged stagnation of the EU accession process gradually delegitimized progressive political options and strengthened hybrid regimes across the region.
Read more →As part of International Republican Institute- IRI’s newly launched USAID Western Balkans People to People program, the Regional Youth Partnership seeks to develop the next generation of leaders in the Western Balkans. The program aims to bring dynamic individuals from around the region to help improve their communities, their countries, and the broader region for
Read more →The Heads of Governments of the Western Balkans Six signed the three mobility agreements under the Common Regional Market (CRM) Action Plan’s mobility agendas – on Freedom of Movement with Identity Cards, on Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications, and on Recognition of Professional Qualifications for Doctor of Medicine, Dentists and Architects – at the Berlin
Read more →Following the publication of the annual European Commission Enlargement Package 2022, BCSDN is issuing the 13th background analysis assessing the progress made in the area of civil society development and dialogue with public institutions in Enlargement countries against the BCSDN Monitoring Matrix. The 2022 Enlargement Package comes in the wake of radical geo-political and economic
Read more →Following the European Parliament`s legislative initiative resolution (2020/2026(INL), with recommendations to the Commission to harmonize the status of non-profits throughout the EU and establish a statute for European association, BCSDN publishes an official position, emphasizing the need for the Western Balkans and Turkey as aspiring EU members to have their say in the process. While
Read more →The European Commission has published its working program for the upcoming 2023. The published communique states that following up on the European Parliament resolution under article 225 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the institution will table a legislative initiative on a statute for European cross-border associations, to enable them to
Read more →BCSDN organizes an online launching event for the research papers prepared within the scope of the CSO – Private Sector engagement research, supported by the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness. At the event, our partners – Albanian Center for Economic Research, European Policy Institute – Skopje (North Macedonia), and TRAG Foundation (Serbia) – will present
Read more →During the debate on EU-Western Balkans relations in light of the new enlargement package, the European Parliament Members have agreed that the accession of the Western Balkans countries to the European Union is its geostrategic priority. They warned that if the EU fails to act following this, third actors, such as Russia, China, and Turkey,
Read more →The European Commission has published the 2022 country reports for the Western Balkans and Turkey. A key novelty in the 2022 Enlargement Package is granting “conditional” candidate status for BiH. While the EU recognizes the active and vibrant Western Balkans civil society role in monitoring governmental action and contributing to policymaking, some of the main
Read more →Based on the Monitoring Matrix for the enabling environment for the development of civil society, developed by BCSDN members, the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) published the report on the enabling environment for the development of civil society for Macedonia for 2021. The report monitors the conditions in the environment in which civil society operates
Read more →The latest episode of our podcast series focuses on the benchmarks that contoured the timeline of events leading to the rapid decline of civic space and the endangerment of civic freedoms in Serbia. On the 5th of October 2022, when this episode of the Explaining Western Balkans Podcast Series was taking place, Serbia marked 185
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