Kranjska Gora – ESI at Young Bled Strategic Forum on shaping Europe’s future

Adnan led discussions at the Young Bled Strategic Forum in Kranjska Gora. Photo: ESI 

Adnan Ćerimagić, ESI senior analyst, took part in the 2026 Young Bled Strategic Forum in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, bringing together young professionals to discuss democracy, international cooperation and Europe’s place in a rapidly changing world. 

Adnan opened the substantive programme on 28 August with a session examining a world in which power is shifting, international rules are weakening and established assumptions about Europe’s future are increasingly contested. He challenged participants to consider three questions: how to understand the current rupture, what is worth defending, and where individuals and institutions still have the power to shape events. 

In a subsequent interactive workshop, Adnan worked with participants to explore what these changes mean for their own countries and fields.

On 30 August, Adnan led a further session, “From Inheritance to Agency: History, Responsibility and the Choices Ahead”. Participants reflected on how previous generations shaped the institutions and political order they inherited, and on the responsibility of the present generation to make choices that will shape what comes next. The session concluded by asking participants to identify where their own capacity to act lies and what kind of future they want to help create. 

The Young Bled Strategic Forum also addressed democratic backsliding, disinformation, the future of the Euro-Atlantic order and European foreign policy. It formed part of the wider Bled Strategic Forum programme in Slovenia.

• ESI proposal: “Preventing violence – transform Kosovo dialogue”
• ESI background: “Scoreboard - The true state of accession - What the Commission assessments reveal”
• ESI proposal: “End the turtle race How the EU can address the crisis of the accession process”
• ESI proposal: “Offer the four freedoms to the Balkans, Ukraine, and Moldova For a merit-based EU accession process with a credible goal”
• ESI proposal: “47 again? Russia out, Kosovo in Support Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe”
• ESI proposal: “Abandon clichés about Bosnia: Push EU-related reforms instead of arbitrary conditions”
• ESI proposal: “No partition: Why Kosovo and Serbia must not discuss territory”
• ESI report: “Anti-Corruption Report for the West Balkans: Measure corruption in order to fight it”