In the last decades, Serbia has been facing serious demographical challenges. The low rates of natural increase in population combined with the negative net migrations caused depopulation at the state level. This trend is the strongest in rural areas and less developed regions. Circular migration (repeated legal migration of the same person between two or more countries), whose importance has been increasing both globally and in Serbia in the past decade, could lead the way out of this problem.

Evaluation of the European Commission in the 2022 Report, which analyses the results achieved in the period from June 2021 to June 2022.

Presiding over the Council of the EU is a complex task that requires significant leadership and political skills. After another round of rotation, the turn has come for the Czech Republic to head the Council for a six-month period. This will be the second Czech presidency since this country acceded to the EU in 2004. This time, however, presiding over the EU will be much more challenging.

Ever since its inception, the number of those supporting the Template model of staged accession to the EU has been sprouting. Primarily, this applies to the EU stakeholders from several member states who have recognised the Model’s potential to reform the enlargement policy. Moreover, the acquired feedback has been valuable as it allowed the authors to refine the Model further. The collected comments and reactions were used to produce a follow-up publication focused on addressing the four key concerns of EU stakeholders.

By signing the Sofia Declaration on the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans in October 2020, leaders from the region recognised the importance of the European Green Deal (EGD), which is the EU’s new growth strategy towards a modern, climate neutral, resource-efficient and competitive economy.

The complex system of governance of the European Union often blurs the distinction between where decisions are made and who is responsible for them. One of the major institutions that steer the direction of EU policies is the Council of the EU which is run by member states based on a model of rotation.

On the auspices of the Berlin Process Summit, WB agreed upon creating a Common Regional Market and tasked CEFTA Secretariat with leading the implementation efforts in trade-related issues.

The policy paper deals with the issue of creating a Central European Social Model as a next step in the CEFTA development. In this regard, given the strong bonds existing between CEFTA and the EU, the author puts forward the hypothesis that the European Social Model should serve as a guideline for creating the Central European Social Model.

Despite a successful implementation providing for a zero tariff trade across the region, the trade within the CEFTA area is inhibited by numerous non-tariff barriers to trade (NBTs). Waiting time at crossing points in CEFTA generates up to 800 M€ per year.

Although the relations between France and the Western Balkans (WB) have a long history, the intensity of French engagement in this region has varied over time and today there is arguably space for improvement. In fact, after two decades of modest interest in the region, France has recently signalled its intention to intensify its engagement in the Western Balkans.