Programme

8h30 Registration, Coffee and Kipferl

9h00 Opening

• Alexander KMENTT, Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the Political and Security Committee, Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union, Brussels

• Dominique DAVID, President, Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe and advisor to the President of the French Institute of International Relations (ifri), Paris

9h10 Setting the scene – South Eastern Europe, China and the EU

• Jens BASTIAN, Independent Financial Sector Analyst & Economic Consultant, Athens

• Gudrun WACKER, Senior Fellow, Research Division Asia, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Berlin

• Nicolas CENDROWICZ, Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), Deputy Head of Balkans Regional Cooperation, European Commission, Brussels

Moderation: Dominique DAVID, President, Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe and advisor to the President of the French Institute of International Relations (ifri), Paris

10h10 Coffee and networking break

10h30 Views from South-Eastern Europe: China’s engagement in the region

• Dragana MITROVIĆ, Professor of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, Executive Director of the Centre of Asian and Far Eastern Studies, Belgrade

• Ardian HACKAJ, ShtetiWeb Director, Cooperation & Development Institute (CDI), Tirana

• Zoran NECHEV, European Union Insitute for Security Studies (EUISS), Paris and Center for EU Integration at the Institute for Democracy ‘Societas Civilis’, Skopje

Moderation:  Tobias FLESSENKEMPER, Senior Fellow and Project Balkans project Director, Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE), Nice

11h30 Coffee and networking break

11h45 EU’s connectivity agenda and the Berlin process: the impact of China’s engagement in South-Eastern Europe

• MEN Jing, Professor of European Union-China Relations; Director of the EU-China Research Centre, College of Europe, Bruges

• George TZOGOPOULOS, Senior Research Fellow, Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE); Researcher, Begin-Sadar Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) and Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), Athens and Nice

• Agatha KRATZ, Associate Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations, London

Moderation: Dušan RELJIĆ, Head of Brussels Office, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Brussels

12h45 Conclusion of the seminar