But is the EU following the right strategy? Is regional cooperation a game changer?

A new major report by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and wiiw has taken up these questions. The study ‘Pushing on a string? An evaluation of regional economic cooperation in the Western Balkans’ examined the economic effects of the EU's strategy of regional economic cooperation and the reasons for its failure. It argues that the Western Balkan countries would benefit much more from a deeper form of integration into the EU internal market than from all efforts to further advance their intra-regional trade - not least because the basic prerequisites for a functioning regional economic cooperation are still not in place and because the potential upside from deeper economic integration among six relatively poor countries is quite low. 

WEB-Discussion Overview

Welcome by Hannes Swoboda, President of wiiw & Stefani Weiss, Senior Expert, Bertelsmann Stiftung

Paper Presentation by Richard Grieveson, Deputy Director, wiiw

Comments by Florian Bieber, Professor of Southeast European History and Politics and Director of the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University (CSEES)

Moderation of Q&A session by Mario Holzner, Executive Director, wiiw

(Registration link: https://my.demio.com/ref/bGlsoFAUXOeuzAuj)