RCC Secretary General Majlinda Bregu takes part in the sixteenth Dubrovnik Forum 

"The language of power is the language of leadership. By necessity, and maybe not by choice, the EU is learning every day that speaking the language of power is power itself. European leadership, power, and unity have never been more important, more needed, and more obviously in the interests of EU Member States and other regions worldwide, including the Western Balkans," said Majlinda Bregu, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), at the Dubrovnik Forum today.

Ms Bregu took part in the “Has the EU Learned to Speak the Language of Power?” panel together with Jiři Kozák, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Mariin Ratnik, Undersecretary for Economic and Development Affairs at Ministry of Foreign Affairs of  Estonia, Domagoj Hajduković, Chairperson of the European Affairs Committee of the Croatian Parliament, Željana Zovko, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, and Elmar Brok, Former Member of the European Parliament. The panel was moderated by Andreja Metelko Zgombić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia. 

“Europe can be more. But as a bigger, enlarged one. Enlarged not only through the lens of geopolitical necessity, but an enlarged one that acknowledges that integrated Western Balkans is a genuinely smart investment. Either we need a new mindset regarding enlargement or we all need to decide what kind of EU integration we want to be following from now on. Is there a need to shift the focus? I personally believe we only have three ways. One is the way of domestic reforms, the other of deeper economic integration and regional cooperation and the third one is to catch up with the EU no matter what. Catch up at the level of reforms that will bring Western Balkans economically closer to the EU,” concluded Bregu.

Dubrovnik Forum International Conference, organized by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia took place in Dubrovnik for the sixteenth year in a row. The Forum brought together senior officials, ministers, representatives of governments, international organisations, academic community and think-tanks for two-day discussions focusing on dynamics and needs of global geopolitics and geo-economics. This year’s Forum addressed Europe’s energy transition, the challenges in the Mediterranean basin, the Western Balkans’ Euro-Atlantic path and more. 

More on the forum at: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia - Dubrovnik Forum (gov.hr)