Budva – "Strengthening the role of evidence based policy in the Western Balkans"

3 May 2012
Seminar participants. Photo: EFB
Seminar participants. Photo: EFB

On 3 May 2012 Kristof Bender, ESI's deputy chairman, participated at a seminar organised by the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB) in Budva, Montenegro. The event, bringing together 24 young researchers from 12 think tanks from the Western Balkans was part of the "think and link" programme of the EFB that aims to support research-based, policy-oriented think tanks in South Eastern Europe.

Kristof spoke on a panel on "The Balkans and the EU - New Realities", together with Iliar Deda, the new research director of the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (Kipred) and Nida Gelazis of the Woodrow Wison International Center for Scholars from Washington, D.C. Other participants included Gordana Djurovic, former Montenegrin Minister for European Integration, Dusan Reljic, Senior Research Associate at the German Institute for International Affairs and Security (SWP) in Berlin; Laza Kekic, Regional Director at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, Milica Uvalic, Economics Professor at the University of Perugia, and Goran Buldioski, Director of the Think Tank Fund of the Open Society Foundations.