DPC organized a public discussion at the Austrian Embassy in Berlin on recent political challenges in the Western Balkans and the future role of the EU and the US. The discussion assembled Ulrike Lunacek, MEP (The Greens/EFA) and the European Parliament’s Kosovo rapporteur, Michael Brand, MP (CDU) in the German Bundestag and Vedran Džihić, political scientist at the University of Vienna. The event was moderated by DPC Senior Associate Bodo Weber. Panelists discussed the challenges for the West’s Balkans policy in the light of recent challenges – the ongoing political stalemate in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the outbreak of violence in northern Kosovo in Summer 2011. They agreed on the need for firmer EU-action, better transatlantic coordination, and also the need to overcome the divide of the West and inside the EU over its policy in the region.
The event took place in cooperation with the Austrian Embassy in Berlin and the Center for Transatlantic Relations of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the John Hopkins University in Washington, DC. It was organized on the occasion of the publication of the book Unfinished Business:The Western Balkans and the International Community, a SAIS publication co-edite by co-panelist Vedran Džihić, which includes articles by Lunacek as well as DPC Senior Associate Kurt Bassuener.
http://www.kulturforumberlin.at/veranstaltung/Event/show/unfinished-business/