📅 FEPS Newsletter: we are back!

Returning to work after the summer holidays is more appealing with the exciting rentrée agenda the FEPS team has prepared for you!

This summer, we travelled, in-person and with our minds. We went to the Western Balkans and got back with a fresh 'Balkan Focus’ series: a dive into the current political developments of this region. As much as we like to look at their present and future, these countries have a past to learn from.

In the following days, among other activities, we'll host public events on Sahel, care economy and AI in the workplace. Join us and stay tuned, many more will be announced soon!

POLICY BRIEF
Embracing the Western Balkan countries’ EU accession process

Balkan Focus policy brief series
By Eleonora Poli

The EU needs to reassess its regional engagement and provide a credible enlargement path for the Western Balkans.

What are the challenges and geopolitical shifts impacting the EU enlargement process for the Western Balkan (WB6) region? This policy brief also underlines the importance of including the WB6 in the EU for European security and stability at large. Read more.

POLICY BRIEF
Perspective on staged accession

Balkan Focus policy brief series

By Sabrina De Silva

Find here a timely analysis of the most relevant proposals – developed both within the European institutions and by independent research centres – on the staged accession methodology for the EU Enlargement process toward the Western Balkans.

This policy brief also includes a summary of the discussion held at the network meeting of Friends of the Western Balkans in June 2023. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the proposal developed during the discussion. Read more.

Initiated in 2012, the Korčula School brings together women and men political leaders from centre-left and social-democratic parties, experts, political activists and feminists, especially from South Eastern Europe, to discuss gender equality issues.

Among the speakers that took part in the debate were Ann Linde, former Minister for Foreign Affairs for Sweden; Zita Gurmai, PES Women President; Maria João Rodrigues, FEPS President; László Andor, FEPS Secretary General; Knut Fleckenstein, FEPS Special Advisor on Western Balkans; and Laeticia Thissen, FEPS Senior Policy Analyst on Gender Equality.

📕Women in the Western Balkans were also the focus of our policy studies on the implementation of gender mainstreaming and women’s political participation.

Are activation policies aimed at removing barriers to employment and strengthening the connection between social protection and work life? Their purpose, and effectiveness have been subject to an ongoing debate. Critics argue that it can serve as a disguise for deregulation policies.

This study reviews the nature of activation reforms in National Recovery and Resilience Plans and observes that the Recovery and Resilience Facility helped trigger, or even amplified, essential welfare recalibrations. Read more.

These commissioners used to be political heavyweights in their home countries before moving to Brussels, which was certainly good for Europe. But due to their simultaneous departure more than one year before the end of the mandate of this Commission, added by the constant speculation about Ursula von der Leyen preparing for Jens Stoltenberg's succession at the helm of NATO, the Commission's leadership capacity is dramatically dropping. It gives the impression of the wheels coming off, and that the achievements of this cycle on major policy fields could remain incomplete. Read more.