Just over 20 years ago, at the Thessaloniki EU-Western Balkans Summit in 2003, the EU sent a strong signal to the Western Balkan countries and opened the space for a common vision of the future of the region within the Union. While by 2023 all but one of the countries (Kosovo) in the Western Balkans have gained candidate status, their future within the EU is no longer as clear as it once was. North Macedonia, the first country in the region to attain candidate status in 2005, is currently stalled due to a bilateral issue with Bulgaria, even after having resolved another one with Greece by agreeing to change its name. The other countries in the region also struggle to make progress either due to a lack of political will on one or both sides, or due to a lack of reforms, or both. The EU enlargement process itself has also changed significantly. It no longer resembles the process by which most countries in Eastern Europe were able to forge their path; instead, it has been restructured with a new methodology and two potential tiers. This might all seem abstract in many ways, but the lack of a clear vision for the EU's future has serious implications for the region and its citizens, particularly considering the dominance of the EU in the political and social imagination of the Western Balkans. Much is at stake in defining and redefining integration into the EU, especially as countries with new energies and hopes, such as Ukraine and Moldova, enter the process. During her lecture, Pollozhani will be discussing precisely what these implications are, with the aim of advancing the Western Balkan imagination of the EU and introducing it to listeners of an EU member state, seeking to create new spaces for new (or old) visions for the region.
Lura Pollozhani is a researcher at the Centre for Southeast European Studies, in the University of Graz, as well as researcher with the CONNEKT project. She holds a MSc from the LSE and a PhD from the University of Graz. She is currently researching social movements and citizenship in divided societies, particularly in Macedonia, as well as researching radicalization and violent extremism. Previously she has worked as an Advisor to the Prime Minister of North Macedonia on cooperation with international organizations. She went on to work for the UNHCR as an external engagement officer. She has worked as a Researcher at the University of Prishtina and as a University Assistant at CSEES. One of her latest publications is Compared perspectives on radicalisation and violent extremism in MENA, the Balkans and the European Union (2021).
Session of the conference series of the interuniversity programme Aula Mediterrània 2023-24 moderated by Lurdes Vidal, professor of the master’s degree, FCRI Blanquerna - URL. The conference is coorganized with the Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in International Affairs, FCRI Blanquerna - Universitat Ramon Llull.
It takes place at the IEMed conference room (Girona, 20 · Barcelona)
It can also be followed on IEMed’s RU-vid Channel.
17 янв 2024
