Introductory remarks of Mr. Jacques Marion to the European Leadership Conference on the Western Balkans at the European Parliament in Brussels on 19 November 2025.
N.B. This transcription has been prepared with as much accuracy as possible, but please note that it may contain minor discrepancies.
Respected President Moisiu, President Sejdiu, Honorable Lukas Mandl, Excellencies, Ambassadors, members of the European Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our European Leadership Conference on the theme of Western Balkan stability and European security. My name is Jacques Marion. I'm the president of the Universal Peace Federation for Europe and the Middle East, and I'll be the moderator for the first session on the topic of Resilience in Transition: Building Stable Democracies in the Western Balkans.
This conference is timely, as EU enlargement is today considered a strategic investment for the stability and security of Europe. And as we heard recently, that Albania is expected to conclude accession talks by the end of '27, and may become a member of the EU by 2030, we keenly expect our panelists to enlighten us on this process. Because of obvious time constraints, I will only give a brief introduction to our distinguished speakers. So you may read their more detailed bios in the package that you have in front of you.
And I want to remind our panelists, in the interest of time, to please Kindly keep your presentations to seven minutes maximum. I will now invite our first speaker for opening remarks, Honorable Lukas Mandl. He is the host of this conference, Co-Lead Member for the Western Balkans, Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group at the European Parliament. He's a strong supporter of Western Balkans' European integration. We deeply appreciate, sir, your willingness to host this conference today. Thank you, and the floor is yours.