Policy dialogue meeting with DG NEAR on “Migration and refugee flows through the Western Balkan region: implications for the enlargement process” in Trieste at CEI HQ

May 9, 2016

migration meetingOn behalf of Belgrade centre for human rights, Ms. Sonja Toskovic participate in policy dialogue meeting with DG NEAR on “Migration and refugee flows through the Western Balkan region: implications for the enlargement process” in Trieste at Central European Initiative  Headquarter.

“In a context of deteriorating expectations of the EU candidate countries towards the enlargement process, the refugee crisis in the Balkans has contributed to broadening the communication channels, reconnecting the WB leaders with the EU institutions at large”, the Secretary General of the Central European Initiative (CEI), Giovanni Caracciolo di Vietri, said during his opening address at the meeting on Friday 6 May in Trieste, where the implications of the Balkan Route on the EU enlargement process were discussed.
 
The event was organised by the Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso (OBC) in cooperation with the CEI and the European Commission – DG NEAR. Luisa Chiodi, Director of the OBC, affirmed that  “The refugee crisis brought the Balkans back to the centre of the EU policy after years of enlargement fatigue and marginalisation of the region’s countries in the EU agenda”. “But although the crisis brought media attention back to the region, it has also been a devastating emergency from the humanitarian point of view, which obviously has not helped the ongoing programmes of economic renewal”, Chiodi added, recalling that these were countries with fragile institutions, still recovering from the ’90-ies wars. “We are talking about more than 70,000 internally displaced refugees within a region that exports economic migrants itself”, Chiodi added.

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