BLED STRATEGIC FORM IS KNOCKING ON THE DOOR
The world has been changing rapidly. While globalisation and digitalisation have significantly increased the pace of our lives and brought us closer than ever before, we are confronted with fundamental challenges to our perceptions of politics, the economy, security and society. Organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Centre for European Perspective under the title New reality, the twelfth Bled Strategic Forum, to be held on 4 and 5 September, will try to find ways to adapt to the new realities without forgetting the foundations on which our modern societies were built. The political-security Forum event will again be accompanied by the Business BSF and Young BSF, as well as several side events.
The debate on the Western Balkans, a recurrent topic at the Bled Strategic Forum, will assess a lack of implementation of agreements in a panel entitled Western Balkans: EU enlargement – Is pretending the name of the game? While this may be a consequence of the fractured relations in the region, the internal political situation in individual countries, the situation in the EU, and the slow pace of the enlargement process it should have been clear by now that it is in the EU’s strategic interest that the enlargement process has no real alternative. As regional cooperation lies at the very foundation of the whole structure of the EU and is a model that has proved itself exceptionally successful, particularly in such a diversified milieu as the Europe, is there a solution in terirtorial cooperation for the Western Balkan countries, offered by the macroregional strategies?
Under the title (Dis)connected reality, the seventh edition of the Young BSF will bring together successful and innovative young leaders, diplomats, academics, representatives of NGOs and business professionals from all around the world between 1 and 3 September. They will discuss the different ‘realities’ of our physical world that seem completely disconnected from the reality that our societies actually live in. Young BSF will give visionary young leaders an opportunity to form real, connected, or virtual partnerships and networks. This goal-oriented forum will seek to prompt discussions and create synergies between different ideas, turning them into connected or disconnected realities of, and for, everyone. Integrative part of the Young BSF are young prominent individuals from all over the Danube region that will add a macroregional dimension to the event.
