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2022 EU-Western Balkans Summit
The 2022 EU–Western Balkans summit was the fourth edition of the European Union–Western Balkans Summit held on 6 December 2022 in Tirana, Albania. Hosted by the Prime Minister of Albania, Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, the summit brought together Head of state, heads of state and Head of government, government from the Western Balkan nations, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, alongside other EU representatives. Amid the setting of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, it underscored the union's commitment to strengthening its political, economic, and security cooperation with the region. Among the central themes of the discussions was the union's support for the region's integration, particularly through the alignment of the Western Balkans with EU standards. The Tirana Declaration, one of the summit's key results, reaffirmed the EU's dedication to the region's EU accession process, while highlighting the demand for political and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tirana
Tirana ( , ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in Albania, largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills, with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea in the distance. It is among the wettest and sunniest cities in Europe, with 2,544 hours of sun per year. Tirana was founded in 1614 by Ottoman Albanian general Sulejman Bargjini, Sylejman Pasha Bargjini, centered on the Sulejman Pasha Mosque, Old Mosque and ''Sulejman Pasha Tomb, türbe''. The city was fairly unimportant until the 20th century, when the Congress of Lushnjë proclaimed it as Albania's capital after the Albanian Declaration of Independence in 1912. The site of present-day Tirana has been continuously inhabited since the Iron Age and was likely the core of the Illyrian kingdom of the Taulantii, which in classical antiquity was centred in the hinterland of Durrës, Epidamnus. Following the Illyrian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potential Enlargement Of The European Union
There are currently nine states recognised as candidates for membership of the European Union: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Kosovo (the independence of which is not recognised by five EU member states) formally submitted its application for membership in 2022 and is considered a potential candidate by the European Union. Due to multiple factors, talks with Turkey are at an effective standstill since December 2016. Six candidates are currently engaged in active negotiations: Montenegro (since 2012), Serbia (since 2014), Albania (since 2020), North Macedonia (since 2020), Moldova and Ukraine (since 2024). The most advanced stage of the negotiations, defined as meeting the interim benchmarks for negotiating chapters 23 and 24, after which the closing process for all chapters can begin, has only been reached by Montenegro. Montenegro's declared political goal is to complete its negotiations by the en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Michel
Charles Michel (; born 21 December 1975) is a Belgian politician who served as the president of the European Council from 2019 to 2024. He previously served as the Prime Minister of Belgium, prime minister of Belgium between 2014 and 2019. Michel became the Minister of Development Cooperation (Belgium), minister of development cooperation in 2007 at age thirty-one, and remained in this position until elected the leader of the Francophone liberal Reformist Movement (MR) in February 2011. He led MR to the 2014 Belgian federal election, 2014 federal election, where they emerged as the third-largest party in the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium), Chamber of Representatives. After 2014 Belgian government formation, coalition negotiations, Michel was confirmed as Prime Minister of a MR-New Flemish Alliance, N-VA-Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten, OVLD-Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams, CD&V government. He was sworn in on 11 October 2014, becoming the youngest Belgium, Belgian prime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL operates 21 local bureaus with over 500 core staff, 1,300 freelancers, and 680 employees. Nicola Careem serves as the editor-in-chief. Founded during the Cold War, RFE began in 1949 targeting Soviet empire, Soviet satellite states, while RL, established in 1951, focused on the Soviet Union. Initially funded covertly by the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA until 1972, the two merged in 1976. RFE/RL was headquartered in Munich from 1949 to 1995, with additional broadcasts from Portugal's Glória do Ribatejo until 1996. Soviet authorities jammed their signals, and Second World, communist regimes often infiltrated their operations. Today, RFE/RL is a private 501(c)(3) corporation supervised by the United States Agency for Global Media, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Invasion Of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thousands of Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian War, military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, civilian casualties. As of 2025, Russian troops Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupy about 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million Ukrainian refugee crisis, had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe's List of largest refugee crises, largest refugee crisis since World War II. In late 2021, Russia Prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, massed troops near Ukraine's borders and December 2021 Russian ultimatum to NATO, issued demands to the Western world, West i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Member State Of The European Union
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of Lists of member states of the European Union, 27 member states that are party to the EU's Treaties of the European Union, founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership. They have agreed by the treaties to share their own sovereignty through the institutions of the European Union in certain aspects of government. State governments must agree unanimously in the Council of the European Union, Council for the union to adopt some policies; for others, collective decisions are made by qualified majority voting. These obligations and sharing of sovereignty within the EU (sometimes referred to as Supranational union, supranational) make it unique among international organisations, as it has established its own legal order which by the provisions of the founding treaties is Primacy of European Union law, both legally binding and supreme on all the member states (after Costa v ENEL, a land ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solutions companies and projects that achieve the policy aims of the European Union through loans, equity and guarantees. The EIB focuses on the areas of climate, environment, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), development, cohesion and infrastructure. It has played a large role in providing finance during crises including the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 60 years since its inception in 1958 to 2018 the EIB has invested over 1.1 trillion euros. It primarily funds projects that "cannot be entirely financed by the various means available in the individual Member States". The EIB is one of the biggest financiers of Sustainable finance, green finance in the world. In 2007, the EIB became the first institution in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informally known as "commissioners") corresponding to two thirds of the number of Member state of the European Union, member states, unless the European Council, acting unanimously, decides to alter this number. The current number of commissioners is 27, including the president. It includes an administrative body of about 32,000 European civil servants. The commission is divided into departments known as Directorate-General, Directorates-General (DGs) that can be likened to departments or Ministry (government department), ministries each headed by a director-general who is responsible to a commissioner. Currently, there is one member per European Union member state, member state, but members are bound by their oath of office to represent the genera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accession Of Kosovo To The European Union
The accession of Kosovo to the European Union (EU) is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU. Kosovo is currently recognized by the EU as a potential candidate for accession. Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia was enacted on 17 February 2008 by a vote of members of the Assembly of Kosovo. Independence has not been recognised by Serbia, or five out of 27 EU member states, and as a result the European Union itself refers only to "Kosovo", with an asterisked footnote containing the text agreed to by the Belgrade–Pristina negotiations: "This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence." This has not prevented Kosovo from continuing its EU enacted Stabilisation Tracking Mechanism (STM) programme, aiming to gradually integrate its national policies on legal, economic and social matters with the EU, so that at some point in the future Kosovo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Recognition Of Kosovo
International governments are divided on the issue of recognition of the independence of Kosovo from Serbia, which was 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence, declared in 2008. The Government of Serbia does not diplomatically recognise Kosovo as a sovereign state, although the two countries have enjoyed normalised economic relations since 2020 and have agreed not to try to interfere with the other's accession to the European Union. , out of () United Nations member states, 22 out of 27 () European Union member states, 28 out of 32 () NATO member states and 36 out of 57 () Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member states have recognised Kosovo. In total, Kosovo has received 116 diplomatic recognitions by UN member states, however conflicts have arisen regarding the exact number of countries recognising Kosovo. Kosovo claims that the number of countries recognising its independence is 119, whilst Serbia claims the number is 84, stating that some countries have withdrawn r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
