EU-Balkans Ambassadorial Roundtable

24 November 2011

Organised in conjunction with International Business & Diplomatic Exchange (IBDE) and the European Commission Representation in the UK.

European integration stands alongside comprehensive and sustainable growth as the overarching goals for the Balkans. As all Western Balkan countries plus Turkey aspire to full EU membership, the domestic challenges they face and the membership criteria they are expected to fulfil make the pursuance of political reforms as well as sound economic policies essential to ensure the region's progress.

Further to a closer cooperation among the Balkan states themselves, necessary in order to overcome the legacy of the Yugoslav wars, the key regional priorities thus include socio-economic development, sound public finance, external assistance management, enhanced consultation among all stakeholders and anti-corruption measures.

The European Union supports governments in addressing these challenges through the so-called Stabilization and Association Process. It offers key instruments for political stabilisation, transition to a market economy and regional cooperation, and thus represents a prime motivational force for reform in the region. However, the EU also faces challenges of its own with regard to future enlargement, not least the onset of an "enlargement fatigue" among existing member states.

The "EU-Balkans Ambassadorial Roundtable" aims to create an opportunity to address these challenges by way of a constructive dialogue of relevant stakeholders - diplomats, EU officials, business people - with academics specialising in research in this field from UCL and elsewhere. 

Draft Programme:

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Biographies of input speakers

Slavo Radosevic
Slavo Radosevic is Professor of Industry and Innovation Studies at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES). His main research interests are in science, technology, industrial change, foreign direct investments and innovation policy in central and eastern Europe. He favours empirically oriented and policy relevant research projects, based in neo-Schumpeterian, evolutionary and institutional economics. He also has significant policy making experience in Croatia and ex-Yugoslavia, having worked as department director at the Republic Institute for Planning (Croatia), as a researcher at the Institute of Economics Zagreb (Croatia), and as Federal Under-Secretary for Development in the last SFRY government. He also acts as an expert for the various EC DGs, as consultant for OECD, UNESCO, UNIDO, World Bank, UNECE and Asian Development Bank, and on technical assistance projects with Ernst & Young and TNO.

Peter Sanfey is Deputy Director of Country Strategy and Policy within the Office of the Chief Economist at the EBRD, and a guest member of St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He is responsible for the analysis of economic developments and reforms in South-Eastern Europe, and he engages in research and publications on a range of topics covering the whole transition region. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 1992, and was a lecturer in economics at the University of Kent at Canterbury from 1992-97. He is the co-author (with Christopher Cviić) of a book entitled: In Search of the Balkan Recovery: the Political and Economic Re-emergence of South-Eastern Europe, published in 2010 by Hurst & Co. and Columbia University Press.

Laza Kekic heads the Economist Intelligence Unit's regional team of analysts who provide economic, political and business coverage for the countries of eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union. He also heads the Country Forecasting Services, which include the EIU's main traditional product, the Country Reports, as well as the Country Forecasts (medium and long-term forecasts for 82 countries aimed at direct investors). Laza has played a leading role in product development at the Economist Intelligence Unit. His main areas of specialisation and interest are: Russia, the Balkans and other transition economies, foreign direct investment, economic forecasting, and growth economics.

Eric Gordy is Senior Lecturer in South East European Politics at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES). Prior to joining SSEES, he taught sociology at Clark University in Massachusetts and the University of California. He has also been associated with the Collegium Budapest-Institute for Advanced Study (Hungary), the Jefferson Institute (Serbia), the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University(USA), the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University (USA), the Istituto per l'Europa Centro-Orientale e Balcanica (Italy) and the University of Niš (Serbia). His main research focus is on the politics and culture of the contemporary Balkans, with his books including The Culture of Power in Serbia (1999), and Postwar Guilt and Responsibility: Serbia and the Future of International Justice (forthcoming).

James Ker-Lindsay is a Senior Research Fellow focusing on the Politics and International Relations of South East Europe at the London School of Economics and Political Science. A specialist on issues relating to conflict, peace and security, his most recent books include The Cyprus Problem: What Everyone Needs to Know (2011), Kosovo: The Path to Contested Statehood in the Balkans (2009, Paperback 2011) and the co-edited volume, New Perspectives on Yugoslavia (with Dejan Djokic, 2010). He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies and the Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, and is on the steering committee of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Standing Group on South East Europe. In addition to his academic work, he has undertaken regular media commentary and analysis, including writing for Jane's Foreign Report and the Economist Intelligence Unit, and has served as an advisor to the United Nations.

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