Programme

08:30  Registration of participants

09:00  Opening session - EU accession path for the Western Balkans: focus on fundamentals

Moderator: Neža Repanšek, EESC member

• Oliver Röpke, President of the EESC
• Tanja Fajon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia
• Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement (video message)
• Majlinda Bregu, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council

DISCUSSION

10:30  Coffee break and press conference

11:00  EU accession path for the Western Balkans: reforms needed to ensure a successful next enlargement

Moderator: Neža Repanšek, EESC member

• Luka Mesec, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of Slovenia 
• Miodrag Milosavljević, Deputy Director of Open Society Foundations (OSF) – Western Balkans
• Krisela Hackaj, Executive Director, Cooperation & Development Institute (CDI)
• Strahinja Subotić, Programme Manager for the Our Europe programme area, European Policy Centre (CEP), Belgrade, Serbia 

DISCUSSION

13:00   Lunch

14:30   Contribution of organised civil society to the implementation of the new growth plan for the Western Balkans

14:30   Session I: Lessons learned from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Fund (RRF)

Moderator: Ionuţ Sibian, Vice-President of the EESC's Western Balkans Follow-up Committee

• Marjan Trobiš, President of the Association of Employers of Slovenia
• Elena-Alexandra Calistru, EESC member: EESC opinion on Mid-term evaluation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility
• Christophe Quarez, EESC member
• Vladislava Gubalova, Senior Fellow, Centre for Global Europe, GLOBSEC

DISCUSSION

15:30   Session II: Accelerating the socio-economic convergence of the region with the EU

Moderator: Dragica Martinović Džamonja, Vice-President of the EESC's Western Balkans Follow-up Committee

• Saška Kumer, Vice President, Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia, and chair of the Regional Trade Union Council Solidarnost
• Zdravko Ilić, Senior Technical Expert, Central European Free Trade Association (CEFTA) Secretariat
• Marija Ašković Matić, Project Manager, Permanent Secretariat of the Western Balkans 6 Chamber Investment Forum (WB6 CIF)
• Branimir Jovanović, economist, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)
• Dragana Đurica, Secretary General, European Movement Serbia

DISCUSSION

16:30   Coffee break

17:00   Contribution of civil society to EU accession path for the Western Balkans:

Conclusions on the implementation of the new growth plan for the Western Balkans

DISCUSSION

17:30   Summary of main messages and closing remarks

Chair: Andrej Zorko, President of the EESC's Western Balkans Follow-up Committee