The Balkan Silk Road

Francesco Martino, giornalista di OBCT, partecipa al seminario organizzato in occasione del Reflection Forum “The Western Balkans in the European Union”

Programme

8.30 Registration, Coffee and Kipferl

9.00 Opening
• Alexander KMENTT, Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the Political and Security Committee, Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union, Brussels
• Dominique DAVID, President, Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe and advisor to the President of the French Institute of International Relations (ifri), Paris

9.10 Setting the scene – South Eastern Europe, China and the EU
• LIU Zuokui, Director, Department of Central and Eastern European Studies, Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Director, Office of Secretariat of China - CEEC Think Tanks Network, Beijing

Discussants:
• Gudrun WACKER, Senior Fellow, Research Division Asia, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Berlin
• Nicolas CENDROWICZ, Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), Deputy Head of Balkans Regional Cooperation, European Commission, Brussels

10.10 Coffee and networking break

10.30 Views from South-Eastern Europe: China’s engagement in the region
• Jens BASTIAN, Independent Financial Sector Analyst & Economic Consultant, Athens
• Dragana MITROVIĆ, Professor of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, Executive Director of the Centre of Asian and Far Eastern Studies, Belgrade
• Ardian HACKAJ, ShtetiWeb Director, Cooperation & Development Institute (CDI), Tirana
• Zoran NECHEV, European Union Insitute for Security Studies (EUISS), Paris and Center for EU Integration at the Institute for Democracy ‘Societas Civilis’, Skopje (tbc)

Moderation: Tobias FLESSENKEMPER, Senior Fellow and Project Balkans Project Director, Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE), Nice

11.30 Break

11.45 EU’s connectivity agenda and the Berlin Process: The impact of China’s engagement in South-Eastern Europe
• MEN Jing, Professor of European Union-China Relations; Director of the EU-China Research Centre, College of Europe, Bruges
• George TZOGOPOULOUS, Research Fellow, Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE), Athens and Nice
• Agatha KRATZ, Associate Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations, London

Moderation: Dušan RELJIĆ, Head of Brussels Office, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Brussels
12.45 Conclusion of the seminar

Participation upon invitation only