Ηybrid launching ceremony of the Civil Society and Think Tank Forum in the framework of the Berlin Process Summit

On 20 June 2023, the process of the preparation for this year’s Forum was officially launched in a hybrid ceremony held in Tirana. ELIAMEP was represented (online) by Professor Ioannis Armakolas and Dr. Ana Krstinovska.

Watch the video of the event here.

The Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) participates as a co-organiser in the Civil Society and Think Tank Forum, which will take place in the framework of the Berlin Process Summit in Tirana next October (as Albania holds the rotating Presidency of the Process).

The Forum will bring together a wide range of stakeholders, representatives of civil society, institutions, non-governmental organisations and experts from the Western Balkans and the European Union, with the aim of exchanging views and making political recommendations to the leaders of the countries of the region and EU Member States.

The Berlin Process is a platform for cooperation at senior and top level between the Western Balkan states and key EU members, and aims to:

• to deepen cooperation in the EU accession region,
• to promote the necessary reforms and thereby consolidate the prospects of these countries’ accession to the Union.

Drawing on its more than 30 years of experience as the leading Greek think-tank on foreign policy issues, ELIAMEP participates as a co-organiser in the preparation and implementation of the Civil Society and Think Tank Forum: During the coming months until the Tirana Summit, ELIAMEP takes on the role of coordinating the work of a number of organisations from the Western Balkan countries, including the organisation of a series of events and the writing of recommendations, scientific reports on issues such as energy, access to the single market, mobility and security. At the same time, ELIAMEP, by activating its wide network of contacts in Brussels and other key European capitals, contributes decisively to the realisation of a series of contacts with political and social actors, shaping the agenda of the enlargement of the Union to be discussed. The other co-organisers of the Forum are the Open Society Foundation (OSF) and the Cooperation and Development Institute (CDI).

The implementing body of ELIAMEP’s action in the Civil Society and Think Tank Forum is the South East Europe Programme headed by Ioannis Armakolas, PhD (Cantab), Associate Professor of Comparative Politics of South East Europe at the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies of the University of Macedonia, Senior Research Fellow and Head of the South East Europe Programme.