21.10. What Should the New European Commission Do About the Western Balkans?

The Czech Republic has been one of the foremost supporters of the enlargement process in the Western Balkans. However, recently the public support for enlargement has decreased significantly in the EU and the Czech Republic alike, and the newly elected President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker declared that no further enlargement will take place over the next five years. Moreover, while the current enlargement policies work well with most of the Western Balkan countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina is left to fail in this respect because it is not able to speak with a single voice. Can it be that the European public could block enlargement to the Western Balkans for much longer than “only” five years? And how should we deal with the discrimination and dysfunction in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which effectively preclude the European integration of this country? With the aim to stir public debate on these issues we would like to invite you to a presentation of two policy papers on the issues with a following discussion.

Tomáš Dopita, Institute of International Relations
How Should We Deal with the Discrimination and Dysfunction in Bosnia and Herzegovina? Towards a New European Approach

Anes Makul, Institute of International Relations
Can the European Public Block the Enlargement to the Western Balkans?

Programme

16:00 Welcoming words
Vít Beneš, Editor-in-Chief, Mezinárodní vztahy Quarterly, Institute of International Relations, Prague

16:05 - 16:20 Video presentation "Can the European Public Block Enlargement to the Western Balkans?"
Anes Makul, Associate Research Fellow, Institute of International Relations, Prague

16:20 - 17:00 Reply from Daniela Lences Chalaniova
Daniela Lences Chalaniova, Anglo-American University Prague, European Values - Evropské hodnoty o.s.
Discussion

17:00 - 17:15 Presentation "How Should We Deal with the Discrimination and Dysfunction in Bosnia and Herzegovina? Towards a New European Approach."
Tomáš Dopita, Research Fellow, Institute of International Relations, Prague

17:15 - 17:55 Reply from Hana Oberpfalzerová
Hana Oberpfalzerová, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague
Discussion

17:55 Closing remarks

Working language: English

You can download the programme here.

Video from the presentation:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9JWUV3VUgE[/youtube]