The event gathered around 60 high-level representatives of national academies of sciences and arts, rectors’ conferences and leading universities, and research organisations and distinguished ad personam scientists from the Berlin Process countries.  The participants exchanged their knowledge gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic, they also discussed about the role of science and education in the post-pandemic reality. 17 parties are currently involved in the Process: Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom as well as the European Commission. 

The objective was to prepare formal recommendations to the virtual meeting of the Heads of State and Government at the Berlin Western Balkans Summit on 5 July 2021, covering the following three major topics. In addition,current affairs of education, research & innovation policy were also debated

Pandemic management

The discussion focused on the specific pandemic situation in South East Europe with the goal to draw lessons learned from developments so far in order to avoid a resurgence of SARS-CoV-2-infections and by stressing how science-based knowledge continues to play an essential role in pandemic management, from advice in crisis situation, to pandemic containment and vaccination-based community immunisation.

Crisis resilience
A general lesson learned from COVID-19 for the entire European continent is the urgency to reinforce resilience to risks and threats posed by public health crises, as new future pandemics or regional epidemics are probable. This is why communities and states need to improve their capacity to withstand, cope with, adapt to and recover from affliction of any type by developing systemic resilience. The conference looked also into pandemic preparedness, One Health, cross-border co-ordination as well as pillars of systemic resilience and short-term adversity reactivity.

Post-pandemic priorities
COVID-19 has both induced stresses and triggered transformations in different areas. Next to stresses such as overstrained medical care, disrupted social and economic systems, deteriorating mental health and child well-being, the perception of a “need for change” in the so-called recovery process has been growing. The conference looked into priorities for the post-pandemic time, including transformations such as climate neutrality and digitalisation of state and society. The focus was on South East Europe, also in the context of EU-enlargement and regional cooperation.

The deliverable of the Conference is a Joint Statement to the Heads of State and Government meeting at the 8th Berlin Process Summit, taking place virtually on 5 July 2021. The recommendations were also submitted to the College of Commissioners of the European Commission.  

Find here the statement focusing on 10 points to control the COVID-19 in the Western Balkans

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