Conference “EU Enlargement Forum 2025” was Held in Prague

Within the scope of the EU Enlargement Forum 2025 Conference in Prague, organized by Europeum Institute, Dušan Protić participated at the table on the topic of EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034 in light of the next enlargement, where he presented the main findings of the latest CEP study “What does the Western Balkans cost me?” providing that overall cost of integrating the whole Western Balkans would be marginal relative to the EU’s total financial capacity.

Protić said: “EU can comfortably finance the Western Balkan enlargement within its existing fiscal capacity without raising member state contributions or significantly reducing current commitments, since the average cost of the membership of Western Balkans six would amount up to €5 per EU citizen per year. Bottom line is – Western Balkans annual price of EU membership per capita would be pretty much equivalent to a cup of espresso.”

This discussion attracted a lot of attention of the participants and the expectation that such exact data will additionally help in the argumentation of the request for the acceleration of the accession process of the entire region.