Cooperation and Development Institute (CDI) will organize the 9th edition of the Tirana Connectivity Forum (TCF23) entitled “Reloading Enlargement”, on 18 and 19 September 2023.

Since its first edition, TCF has become an annual benchmark for national, regional and EU stakeholders involved in EU enlargement, regional cooperation, and connectivity in Southeast Europe 6 (SEE6) region, aiming to shape the discussions about a development-based Accession in EU built on regional development, that increases the resilience of SEE6 reform achievements and reducing the convergence gap with EU neighbouring countries.

TCF 2023 will be built on two pillars:

• The first pillar focuses on the state of affairs of the implementation of the Common Regional Market agreements as well as of EU Economic and Investment Plan Flagships. Specialized CSO and think tanks will share their assessment with regional policy-makers and draw conclusions on implementation progress and the impact on SEE6 citizens;
• The second pillar will bring together EU and SEE6 think tanks that have put forward proposals to boost Enlargement, with EU decision-makers. They will share their angle, debate and work together on the most appropriate ways of speeding up the pace of SEE6 accession to the EU.

ReSPA will contribute to the roundtable Cohesion-related policies and programs applied in SEE6, and promote lessons learned from selected cases, on 19 September 2023.