Slovenian President the keynote speaker at the political and security council on the EU enlargement

Today, the President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor attended the political and security forum "To Be Secure Forum" (2BS Forum), which is taking place virtually this year.

Together with the President of the Republic of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski, President Pahor participated in the discussion on the enlargement of the European Union and the future of the region in the next ten years.

President Pahor reiterated his position that the European perspective of the region was the main geopolitical issue for European stability and expressed his wish that the entire region would become part of the European Union as soon as possible. Furthermore, he highlighted the importance of being aware that the European Union is facing many other challenges, among them the health crisis, followed by the economic crisis and Brexit. Nevertheless, underestimating the importance of enlargement would be a serious mistake. President Pahor also assessed that North Macedonia had fulfilled everything that was required of it and expressed regret that the start of negotiations was nonetheless postponed.

The forum addressed the challenges of the current regional and security frameworks, which raise specific concerns within the Euro-Atlantic community to again analyse and re-launch joint efforts to further strengthen the prosperous future of South-East Europe and beyond.

In a number of discussions, participants addressed issues related to the future of the post-pandemic Western Balkans, COVID-19 geopolitics and the future of global leadership. They also discussed new security challenges and new borders within NATO 2030, US foreign policy following the recent presidential election, digitalisation in connection with fake news and looked to the future of the world, Europe and the Western Balkans in 2030.


Photo: UPRS