PRESPA FORUM FOR DIALOGUE 2003
"Road to 2030" panel
Skopje, North Macedonia, May 8, 2023.
At the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia, Miralem Tursinović, ALF BiH HoN, was in Skopje from May 7 to 9, where he participated in the panel discussion "Road to 2030".
The panel was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, as a preparatory event for the PRESPA Forum for Dialogue, which will be held in Struga on June 15 and 16 this year.
During the presentation, but also in bilateral meetings with representatives of the Ministry, non-governmental organizations from the region, and representatives of international organizations and embassies, who attended the panel, Miralem Tursinović emphasized, among other things, the importance of networking, as well as the exchange of culture and dialogue between countries in the Western Balkans.
The EU enlargement process, from the perspective of EU candidate/accession countries, marked certain steps forward. North Macedonia and Albania opened accession negotiations, while Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine and Moldova received candidate status. However, despite these positive developments, there are still many obstacles on the bumpy road to Brussels.
Given these complex and unpredictable circumstances, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia is preparing the third edition of the Prespa Forum Dialogue 2023 (PFD2023) entitled "Extended European Family by 2030: Mission (Im)possible?" which will be held on June 15 and 16, 2023 in Struga, a picturesque town on the shores of Lake Ohrid.
Following the established tradition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized, as a precursor to PFD2023, a pre-event called "Road to 2030", whose goal is to exchange analytical thoughts and ideas that would serve as a valuable contribution to the session and panel discussions on PFD2023.
Given the global and regional challenges we face, we want to focus pre-event discussions on the EU's ability to act as a global strategic player by, among other things, completing the EU integration process. One of the most important concerns for the citizens of the Western Balkans is the membership of their countries in the EU. The vast majority of citizens believe that the process is too long and rather unfair, and with futile promises they argue the credibility of the EU. The people's support for EU integration has dropped dramatically.
Can we all work together, 20 years after the Thessaloniki summit, to change the paradigm of the enlargement process and the necessity of a strategic awakening by having 2030 as a common goal for EU accession? And yet, in the meantime, given the need for concrete and operational steps to accelerate the region's integration into the EU with a focus on its socioeconomic growth - that is, more integration before EU membership - what credible and temporary steps can be taken to gradually expansion of the European integration process? Given the relaunched Franco-German initiative on EU reform, what impact could it have on enlargement policy, especially given that current policy depends on the willpower of unanimity? To what extent can the extended European family by 2030 contribute to strengthening transatlantic security and shaping the new Euro-Atlantic security system?
More about Prespa Forum at: https://www.facebook.com/PrespaForum
