November 2007

      Barcelona - Museum of Modern Art (next to Cidob)              Narcis Serra (president of Cidob) 

At the invitation of Cidob, the leading foreign policy think tank in Catalonia, and its president Narcis Serra, former Spanish minister of defence and deputy prime minister, I give a breakfast presentation on the future of the Balkans in the wonderful old building Cidob occupies in the centre of Barcelona, close to the new museum of modern art.

The content: an overview of recent developments in Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina and discuss what is required for successful Europeanisation and eventual EU accession of the whole region in 2008.

See also the entry Las Ramblas in November (Barcelona) 

Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, one of Romania’s leading social scientists and founder of the Romanian Academic Society has moved to teach at the Hertie School of Governance (HSoG) in Berlin where she invites me to give a presentation on Turkey’s potential for accession to the EU. Social and economic developments, the recent (legal) revolution of women’s rights, the German debate about Turkey and the role of the military were some of many areas I tried to cover.

This will be followed by another public presentation next week in Berlin on the issue of women in Turkey (in German). For more information on this event go here.

Alina Mungiu-Pippidi - Brandenburg Gate

I talked on the future of EU enlargement at the annual ambassadors conference in Tirana at the invitation of the foreign minister.  For more on this see my blog on the gatecrashing principle.