Agenda

Carbon, Communities, and Conditionality Who Will Carry the Green Transition in the Western Balkans?

Running against the clock with economies powered by fossil fuels, the Western Balkans will be forced to undergo the difficult but necessary green transition of their economies. This panel will examine the underwhelming weight of funding instruments provided by the EU from IPA to WBIF managed loans, as well as the recent Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, over the actual costs of the green transition, and the push for decisive civic participation contribution to shaping the transition to be just and future-proof. Speakers will explore necessary policy reforms across the region, the financing prospects under the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework, and the transformative potential of local energy communities as an example of re-imagining a bottom-up green transition that leaves no citizen behind.

Moderator: Engjellushe Morina – Senior Policy Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)

Speakers:

Marta Schulte-Fischedick – Just Transition Expert, Energy Poverty Expert, Energy Community Secretariat

Aleksandar Macura – Programme Director, RES Foundation

Jadranka Ivanova – President, CSO Institute for Policies in Environment and Climate Change (IPECC), North Macedonia

Aurora Popova – Head of Division, RES Implementation Unit, Ministry of Economy, Kosovo

Coffee Break

At the Digital Crossroads – The Opportunities of AI in the Western Balkans

This panel will discuss how the European Union is rapidly moving toward regulating artificial intelligence, while mechanisms such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) have already become an integral part of the European integration vocabulary. However, on the ground application of digital technologies, including AI, is developing faster than any regulatory framework can fully encompass. In the Western Balkans, where institutional capacities are still limited, global platforms shape local economies, public space, and politics without significant accountability. The risk is not only in lagging behind but in being excluded from the structures that decide digital rules as the region increasingly falls under EU rules without yet being able to participate in their creation.

Moderator: Vesna Bajsanski-Agic – Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Global Development, TechSoup

Speakers:

Sasa Ivanovic – Head of Department for Strategic Planning and International Cooperation, Innovation Fund of Montenegro

Aleksandar Mastilovic – Engineer and Digital Transformation Expert

Ana Toskic Cvetinovic – Executive Director, Partners Serbia

Teuta Sahatqija – Director, Women In Tech Kosovo

Lunch Break

Closing Session: The Edge of Integration

The closing session broadens the conversation from regional aspirations to European responsibility. After two days of dialogue, the focus shifts from the Western Balkans to the European Union itself. With the Treaties under strain, democratic values tested, global power balances shifting, and enlargement stalled, the EU faces a defining moment. Integration now calls for decisive institutional reform, renewed purpose, and a return to the Union’s founding principles. This discussion brings together the Forum’s core themes democratic resilience, digital sovereignty, and climate transition, and asks how the Western Balkans’ potential aligns with Europe’s need for strategic renewal. With 18 million citizens ready to engage, the region offers not only strategic depth, but vital energy, values, and forward-looking leadership. The Edge of Integration marks the beginning of a new tradition: an annual platform where civil society returns, reflects, and helps shape the trajectory of European integration, from within, and with purpose.

Moderator: Nafisa Latic – Journalist

Speakers:

Eva Palatova – Deputy Head of EU in Kosovo

Predrag Zenovic – Chief Negotiator of Montenegro with EU

Umut Ergezer – Deputy Secretary General, Regional Cooperation Council

Ionut Sibian – Executive Director, Civil Society Development Foundation (FDSC), Member, European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)

Lura Limani – Team Lead, Open Society Foundations – Western Balkans

Ignita Express Corner

Ignita Express Corner will invite panelists and Ignita participants to take part in short, unscripted interviews. Happening on the sidelines of the event, the interviews will serve as reflections on ongoing discussions in the main hall and provide a space for guests to share fast-paced conversations.

Arrival & Coffee

Official Opening

Master of Ceremony: Nafisa Latic – Journalist

Opening Speeches:

Andi Dobrushi – Director, Open Society Foundations – Western Balkans

Albin Kurti – Prime Minister of Kosovo

Marie Bjerre – Minister for European Affairs of Denmark (Pre-recorded video message)

Opening Session — WB-EU Convergence Gap: Distance to the True Finish Line

Introducing the Convergence Dashboard developed by the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies and Think Europe institute from Ljubljana with regional partners, the opening panel will map out the economic and social differences between the Western Balkans and the EU and discuss the implications for policymakers and civil society. The dashboard shows how life in the Western Balkan economies compares to the EU, and how long it will take for them to reach EU standards of living in key areas such as economy, society, health, education, environment, institutions, digitalisation, and infrastructure.

Keynote: Erwan Fouere – Associate Senior Research Fellow, Center for European Policy Studies – CEPS)

Moderator: Ilva Tare – Resident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council’s Europe Center

Speakers:

Matej Zakonjsek – Director, Permanent Secretariat of Transport Community Treaty

Branimir Jovanovic – Economist, Vienna Insitute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)

Benoit Dicharry – Economic Advisor, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Olimpija Hristova Zaevska – CEO and Founder, Elson Solutions

Lunch Break

Of Politics and Processes: Gradual Integration on the Edge of Delivery

This panel revisits gradual integration as the operating logic of the enlargement process. Once intended as a sequencing tool, it now unfolds in an increasingly fragmented environment shaped by shifting timelines, politicized benchmarks, and growing coalitions among illiberal forces in the WB-EU-US axis. Civil society operates within shrinking margins, often left to interpret institutional ambiguity while absorbing the consequences of stalled or selective check-the-box reforms. The session will examine what kind of gradual integration sustains momentum, without diluting the ambition of true institutional and socioeconomic transformation for the region.

Moderator: Stefan Ristovski – Researcher, European Policy Institute

Speakers:

Oliver Röpke – President, European Economic and Social Committee

Dimitar Bechev – Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Jelena Dzankic – Co-Director, Global Citizenship Observatory and professor at the European University Institute, Florence

Gentian Elezi – Professor, College of Europe in Tirana & University of Tirana

Does Gen Z dream of EU? A perspective from the Western Balkans

This session will present the preliminary findings of the survey that OSF-WB has conducted on the region’s Gen Z’s political realities and hopes for the future, and dive into what we have missed out on so far. Panelists will be invited to reflect on the weight given to youth perspectives in the region and reflect on the necessity of centralizing young people in decision-making processes, including transformational efforts like the EU accession.

Moderator: Nol Musa – Legal Associate

Speakers:

Ina Majko – Deputy Minister of Health and Social Protection, Albania

Lura Pollozhani – Researcher, Gen Z Political Attitudes Survey, Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz

Dardana Fetahu – Acting Head of Local Branch Office Prishtina, Regional Youth Cooperation Office

Dusan Pajovic – Activist and author

Stefan Boskovic – Research Associate at Institute of International Politics and Economics

Soft Power Hour

Restaurant Marashi, Vatra Shqiptare, Prizren

Jazz performance by Ilir Bajri Trio

Ignita Express Corner

Ignita Express Corner will invite panelists and Ignita participants to take part in short, unscripted interviews. Happening on the sidelines of the event, the interviews will serve as reflections on ongoing discussions in the main hall and provide a space for guests to share fast-paced conversations.

Nocturnal Ideas

An informal chat with contemporary thinkers engaging in a direct exchange on identity and belonging in the 21st century, with a particular focus on solidarity, the interplay between ethnicity/ethno-nationalism and class, and the ways in which the concept of identity is being stretched, sometimes beyond recognition.

Opening Remarks: Andi Dobrushi – Director, Open Society Foundations – Western Balkans

Moderator: Leonard Benardo – Senior Vice President, Open Society Foundations

Speakers:

Bhaskar Sunkara – Founding Editor, Jacobin

Oliver Eagleton – Managing Editor at Phenomenal World and Editor at New Left Review

Nocturnal Reception (DJ Set: Kolektiv)