The WB2EU 2nd Ideas go public Lab will serve the purpose to discuss Eurosceptic and illiberal alliance in the region, to have an intensive debate about rule of law and justice and EU enlargement, to present Policy Briefs of project phase I Rule of law and justice and to discuss the Policy Briefs of phase II Social dimension and to have an exchange with political stakeholders and further establish academia-policy-politics alliance around the project.
Day 1 (14 October)
10.00-11.30h: Tackling illiberalism and Euroscepticism from below project meeting (closed session)
Venue: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences
(Grand Hall: main faculty entrance, 2nd floor)
15.00-16.30h: Workshop – “Eurosceptic and illiberal alliance in the region” (closed session)
Venue: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences
(Grand Hall: main faculty entrance, 2nd floor)
Joint meeting within the framework of the EU projects WB2EU and Tackling illiberalism and Euroscepticism from below
Presentations followed by discussion:
- Tackling illiberalism and Euroscepticism from below: The case of Italy, Manuela Caiani
- Tackling illiberalism and Euroscepticism from below: The case of Poland, Adam Balcer
- WB2EU: Presentation of the Policy Brief by Christina Griessler and Fanni Elek, Andrássy University Budapest, Hungary
- WB2EU: Policy Brief by Djordje Popović, presented by Marko Savković, Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence (BFPE), Serbia
- Tackling illiberalism and Euroscepticism from below: Presentation by Faris Kočan, University of Ljubljana, Centre of International Relations (CIR), Slovenia, WB2EU network
Moderated by Marko Lovec, University of Ljubljana, Centre of International Relations (CIR), Slovenia, WB2EU network
18.00-19.30h: Public debate in hybrid format with Live Stream – “Is the EU losing the Western Balkans and/or vice versa?”
Venue: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences
(Grand Hall: main faculty entrance, 2nd floor)
For a long time, the Central and East European new member states such as Slovenia were a symbol of successful Europeanisation and of the strength of the enlargement policy as the most important foreign policy tool of the European Union. In the last decade, they have taken a central role in the divide over fundamental norms and rules such as independent judiciary, media and civil society, thus ultimately playing in favour of the enlargement fatigue in the Western Europe.
The public debate will among others address the following questions:
- What did Ursula Von der Leyen’s tour in September tell about the reformed enlargement policy being up to the institutional and geopolitical challenges in the region?
- How will the German elections impact the rule of law and enlargement policy?
- What is the climate in the European Council as seen from the outcome of the informal EU-Western Balkans Summit? How prominently figures here the questions of the rule of law and lack of reforms in this sector?
- Are multi-ethnic countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia losing their grounds vis-à-vis the strongmen and growing nationalisms in the region? How will this impact the reform impetus?
- Are we witnessing a re-emergence of the ethnic conflicts as a result of the weakening of the multilateral-normative framework?
Discussants:
Peter Grk, Head of the Bled Strategic Forum (BSF) department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia
Marko Makovec, Director/Deputy Managing Director, Western Europe, Western Balkans, Turkey and United Kingdom, European External Action Service (EEAS)
Donika Emini, Executive Director of CiviKos Platform, Kosovo
Dimitar Nikolovski, Director of the Centre for European Strategies (EUROTHINK), North Macedonia
Christina Griessler, Research Fellow for netPOL-Network for Political Communication, Andrássy University Budapest
Moderated by Vedran Džihić, Senior Researcher, Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip), WB2EU network
In C
ooperation with the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences and the Europe for Citizens project „Tackling Illiberal/Eurosceptic Narratives from Below“:
