The New Europe Center initiated a study visit to the Western Balkans.
The main goal was to learn the experience of the movement of the countries of the Western Balkans to the EU.
The delegation included governmental and non-governmental Ukrainian and Moldovan experts.
Croatia
Here the team met with:
- legend of European integration of Croatia, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Vesna Pusić;
- State Secretary for European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
- head of the Committee on European affairs;
- head of the EU Delegation to Croatia;
- leading experts.
The delegation discussed the transfer of experience and assistance in the process of European integration for Ukraine. Croatia is the last country to join the European Union and it is important to learn from its experience.
Montenegro
The team held meetings with:
- the Minister of European Affairs (she is the Deputy Prime Minister and the head of the EU accession negotiations) Jovana Marovic;
- a group of MPs from different political parties in the Parliament;
- colleagues from think tanks, whose representatives are part of various negotiation groups.
“Montenegro is politically very shaken, but membership in the EU remains an attractive idea even after 10 years of accession negotiations,” Alyona Getmanchuk commented on the mood in the country.
North Macedonia
The case of North Macedonia is extremely interesting to study because:
- North Macedonia has been a candidate for EU membership for 17 years and it has only now started accession negotiations due to the blocking of the process first by Greece, then by Bulgaria.
- North Macedonia is also the last country to join NATO.
In Skopje, the team met with key stakeholders involved in EU accession process in the Government and leading think tanks.
“Here, they are very happy that Ukraine has received candidate status. We are convinced that this helped unblock their accession negotiations as well, and there is also an inspired hope for a restart of the entire EU enlargement process,” Alyona Getmanchuk concluded.
The study visit was supported by the International Renaissance Foundation.
