The creation and operationalization of a regional platform for dialogue and drafting common progressive policies on economic, social, environmental, gender, ethnic, religious, and racial issues; as well as toward strengthening regional social cohesion, was one of the proposals raised by Belgzim Kamberi from the Musine Kokalari Institute for Social Policies during the second panel of the “Western Balkans 2030” Forum held in Tirana. The event featured guests from foundations and similar institutes from the Western Balkans and the European Union, organized by the “Qemal Stafa” Foundation in Tirana and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
The other two panelists, Mr. Pavle Bogoevski, Executive Director of the Progress Institute for Social Democracy in Skopje, and Mr. Ledjon Shahini, Executive Director of the Qemal Stafa Foundation in Tirana, emphasized the importance of increasing regional cooperation to build common positions with clear priorities among progressive organizations in the region.
These common regional positions should be accompanied by more dynamic decisions for the expansion of the European Union in the Western Balkans, among other things, said the speakers of the first panel in their opening remarks: Mr. Knut Fleckenstein from the Party of European Socialists; Mr. Damian Gjiknuri, Secretary General of the Socialist Party of Albania; Ms. Stine Klapper, Head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Office in Tirana; Mr. Ditmir Bushati, former Foreign Minister of Albania; Mr. Adnan Dibrani from the Swedish Social Democratic Party; and Ms. Romina Kuko, Secretary for Foreign Relations in the Socialist Party of Albania.
The next day, the participants of the “Western Balkans 2030” Forum also took part in the panel “Security, the Region, and Europe,” organized by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Albania, as well as in the Congress of the Socialist Party.