Parliamentarians from the Western Balkans took part in the conference opened by Anton Hofreiter, Chairman of the Bundestag’s Committee on European Union Affairs who greeted the participants, highlighting Germany’s commitment to the development of regional cooperation in the Western Balkans, as well as support for the region’s EU integration process. Nicolai von Ondarza and Marina Vulovic of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs then presented the main challenges of EU institutional reforms from the perspective of the Western Balkans’ accession to the EU and the parliamentary dimension of the Berlin Process.

In the second part of the conference, the participants took part in the meeting of the Bundestag's Bundestag’s Committee on European Union Affairs, where they exchanged experiences concerning the main challenges of regional cooperation in the Western Balkans and the region’s EU integration process.

MP Ksenija Markovic praised the organisers’ initiative to involve both parliaments and MPs in the Berlin Process in order to give the whole process credibility and transparency in the hope that concrete results would be more certain. She also pointed out that the EU integration process is a de facto political issue and that it has to be viewed as such, stressing that for the institutional reform of the EU, which may happen, as well as for the inclusion of Western Balkans in the EU single market, it is vital to ensure the rule of law and respect for basic democratic principles.

At the end of the conference, the participants agreed on the idea of regular parliamentary meetings within the Berlin Process.