Opening Chapters – The Western Balkans and the EU

In this episode of Peace Matters, we explore the Western Balkans' renewed bid for European Union membership following the Tivat Summit in June 2026 and examine how shifting geopolitical realities are reshaping the region's European future.

For more than two decades, the Western Balkans have remained in Europe's "waiting room." Yet the Tivat Summit has injected new momentum into the enlargement process, with fresh economic incentives and a Franco-German push for institutional reform raising hopes that the region's path to Brussels may finally be accelerating.

But do the EU's proposed integration measures represent a genuine pathway to full membership? How is the EU's multi-billion-euro Growth Plan affecting citizens on the ground, and where does each Western Balkan country currently stand in its accession process? Is this finally the Western Balkans' moment to join the European peace project?

Guest:

Adnan Ćerimagić is a senior analyst for the Western Balkans at the European Stability Initiative (ESI), a Berlin-based think-tank, where he researches European Union policy towards the region. Before joining ESI in August 2013, Adnan has worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and Brussels. He also did a traineeship in the Secretariat of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and worked for the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (ETC) in Graz. He studied law at the University of Graz and EU international relations and diplomacy at the College of Europe in Bruges. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Institute for Peace in Vienna (IIP), the International Advisory Board of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCBP), and a board member of the Kosovo Civil Society Foundation (KCSF). Adnan is based in Berlin.

Accompanied by:

Gjergj Loka, Project Coordinator at the IIP.

The episode was recorded on 29 June 2026.