On the 5th of October 2022, when this episode of the Explaining Western Balkans Podcast Series is taking place, Serbia marks 185 days of its technical government, 15 days since the country has been put on the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist due to Civic Space Obstructions, and 22 years since the Bulldozer Revolution when progressive activists took over re-directing the country towards, democracy, rule of law and prosperity. 
This episode focuses on the benchmarks that contoured the timeline of events leading to the rapid decline of civic space and endangerment of the civic freedoms that put Serbia on the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlists, alongside Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Guinea, and Sri Lanka.

22 Years on The Edge of Democracy

In the new geopolitical Europe shaped by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Western Balkans are an object of heightened competition. There is an urgent need for fresh momentum in the EU’s integration of the Western Balkans. Yet, growing indifference in most western EU member states to the enlargement and accession of the Western Balkans, coupled with disillusionment throughout the Western Balkans, hinders any significant progress. The EU must end its neglect of the Western Balkans and seize the geopolitical moment to hasten their accession process.
In Friends of Europe’s latest study, Senior Fellow and journalist Paul Taylor examines what the EU and the Euro-Atlantic community need to do to advance the economic and political integration of the Western Balkans into Europe, provide bigger incentives for reforms and prevent a drift into potential armed conflict from ethnic nationalism and corrupt governance.

How (not) to lose the Balkans in 10 days?

Podcast Series: Explaining Western Balkans

Episode: You(th) in Revolt! 

Interlocutors: Blazhen Maleski, a researcher in REACTOR Research in Action and Youth Representative in RYCO Board; Miljana Pejić, Secretary General of National Youth Council of Serbia
Established in 2016, according to the model of the Youth franco-german Office for youth cooperation, the Regional Youth Cooperation Office – RYCO, was supposed to be the shining example of co-management and youth representation that would promote the spirit of reconciliation and cooperation between the youth. 
7 years and 3 recalled elections of representatives later, youth from WB6 countries is still fighting for normalizing integrity-based processes of appointment and opposing tokenism posing for youth representation.
Hear more on the timeline, the re-occurring challenges, established practices for the exchange of experience, and lessons learned with Blazhen Maleski and Miljan Pejić. 
Access the podcast here

You(th) in Revolt!

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) did not just go around the Balkans, but rather break ground in the region. The latest developments in this area across Western Balkans, but also the EU, are presenting a real danger to the already narrowed space for CSO action, preventing CSOs to fulfill their important role.
How did this whole thing start? What would be the upstairs of such regulation, if any, and what would be the downsides? Where the threats have been spotted in all the scenarios CSOs have been working around? 
These and many more important questions have been covered with our interlocutors, Ms. Aida Daguda, the Executive Directress of the Center for Promotion of Civil Society from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Mr. Zahary Yankov the Legal Advisor in the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law from Bulgaria.

How (not) to lose the Balkans in 10 days?

BCSDN

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