What significance does the Central European Initiative have today?

The Central European Initiative (CEI), a regional intergovernmental forum established after the fall of the Berlin Wall, remains—nearly four decades after its founding—focused on regional cooperation and the European integration of its member states. In the meantime, other initiatives with similar goals have emerged, and experts interviewed by Kosovo Online hold differing views on whether this has diminished CEI’s role. Some argue that CEI is far from becoming “obsolete scrap metal,” particularly because it brings together far more members than other initiatives, while others believe that—for the countries of our region—the Berlin Process has taken precedence.

Written by: Dusica Radeka Djordjevic

Of the 16 CEI member states, seven are still outside the EU: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine. The remaining nine are EU members: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania, which will officially begin its CEI presidency on 1 January 2026.
Romania assumed the presidency from Serbia yesterday at the meeting of foreign ministers of member states held in Belgrade. Hosting the gathering, Serbia’s Foreign Minister Marko Đurić stated that CEI is a platform for dialogue, support, and mutual learning, since it includes both EU and non-EU states.
Đurić said that during its presidency Serbia sought to strengthen ties among members. He emphasised that enhancing energy and digital infrastructure is the best way to increase economic growth and bring citizens closer together, highlighting in this context the initiative to revitalise the Trieste–Zagreb–Belgrade railway corridor—a vision he believes can become reality through cooperation.
CEI Secretary General Franco Dal Mas stressed that CEI today is a unique bridge for regional cooperation.
“We must build a clear and results-oriented vision focused on our shared priorities: supporting the European integration of the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine, and continuing to assist Ukraine in confronting ongoing aggression. Our task is to strengthen public trust in institutions, improve connectivity, and invest in a more resilient and better-prepared generation,” he said.
Former Serbian diplomat Zoran Milivojević told Kosovo Online that the Central European Initiative is a factor and mechanism that enables European integration and transition processes to move faster and more efficiently through concrete projects and engagement.
Milivojević noted that CEI was among the first initiatives established after the fall of the Berlin Wall, at the initiative of Italy and Austria, to support the transformation and transition process following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
He emphasised that CEI played a key role in the EU accession of a large group of countries—ten former members of the Warsaw Pact in 2004.
“CEI still performs that function today. It is one of the mechanisms that prioritises regional cooperation based on concrete projects aimed at providing infrastructure, a favourable economic and market environment, and creating the conditions of competitiveness needed for faster and easier entry into the EU. It also serves to create a favourable political environment, given the legacy left after the fall of the Berlin Wall, especially in the Western Balkans after the 1990s wars,” he said.
In comparison with other initiatives—such as the Open Balkan and the Berlin Process—Milivojević believes CEI has a significantly broader reach because it includes all Central and Southeastern European countries, including Ukraine, and because of its role in EU integration.

According to him, CEI has greater potential to prepare the environment and groundwork for EU accession.
“In that sense, CEI has no competition. It also functions as an international organisation in the legal sense because it has a parliamentary assembly, whereas the Berlin Process and Open Balkan are initiatives based solely on the will of a smaller group of states and strictly on projects within that scope. Meanwhile, the reach of CEI applies to the entire EU space according to the principle of concentric circles. Cooperation effects can even extend to other regions because the initiative encompasses a substantial part of the EU and Eurozone market,” Milivojević explained.
He added that cooperation among CEI countries can always be further enhanced, especially now that EU enlargement policy has returned strongly and geopolitics dominates—when the interests of CEI members and non-EU countries are aligned. This is particularly true, he said, for our region and for the EU’s eastern policy, since both Ukraine and Moldova are CEI members.
“Now that there is EU interest in non-member states as well, CEI may gain additional significance and momentum. Its policy and philosophy of functioning fully align with EU interests. In this context, Serbia’s presidency was especially important because it strengthened its capacity for accession negotiations and opened space for enhancing regional cooperation, which is a priority of its foreign policy,” Milivojević said, assessing Serbia’s presidency as successful in every respect.

Albania chaired the Central European Initiative during 2024, and economic expert from Tirana Eduard Gjokutaj told Kosovo Online that CEI has lost the significance it once had and has become less strategic and more technical. He believes the Berlin Process and the Open Balkan have taken the lead.
However, Gjokutaj also said that CEI remains embedded in processes related to Berlin Process projects and other integration mechanisms.
According to him, CEI prioritises internal development, supports dozens of projects, and is a complementary initiative in areas not covered by the Berlin Process.
Gjokutaj emphasised that CEI does not represent only the Western Balkans—it also includes Moldova and Ukraine.
“CEI has provided major support to these countries in aligning with the requirements of the European market, internal policies, and integration-related approaches. Over the years, additional agreements important for trade and the economy have also been created, such as CEFTA, which is binding—unlike CEI, which does not adopt agreements or memoranda but simply promotes policy and acts as a complementary mechanism. Of course, CEI’s ‘weight’ has changed, although it remains important in how our governments approach it,” he said.

Regarding CEI’s functioning, Gjokutaj sees Italy’s role as crucial—as the initiative’s leading and creative country, which wanted the region’s states close to it.
“If we look at how our countries approach this organisation, we understand that CEI is no longer as desirable as it once was. Taking Serbia as an example—Belgrade is now focused on those types of agreements and relations that support its exports, since Serbia is an export-oriented country. In this regard, CEI no longer has a primary role. Serbia’s priorities are now the Berlin Process and the Open Balkan, including the agreements linked to them, as well as bilateral agreements with Hungary, China, the UAE, Turkey, Russia and others,” Gjokutaj said.
He noted that CEI participates in cross-border projects, improving administrative capacities, and modernising domestic policies to align with EU standards, and that it influences specific areas such as education, science, and energy.

According to analyst Blagojce Atanasovski of Skopje, the Central European Initiative represents more a form of symbolic connectivity than a structure enabling real institutional alignment and substantive reforms.
He said CEI played a role in bringing together countries emerging from the “post-communist bloc.”
“With the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, these states needed to connect regionally through this initiative to accelerate their path toward full EU membership, drawing on each other’s experiences and offering mutual support,” Atanasovski told Kosovo Online.
He added that CEI is similar to later initiatives like the Berlin Process, the Open Balkan or CEFTA—all aimed at regional integration of countries not yet fully part of the European Union.

“From that perspective, all of these initiatives were noble and welcome, primarily because they removed certain customs barriers and fostered economic, industrial and commercial connections, preparing countries for what is known as the European single market. They were a kind of litmus test ahead of eventual EU membership for Eastern and Southeastern European countries over the past 30 years. But I do not believe these initiatives can replace full EU membership for any country in Southeastern Europe,” he stressed.
Atanasovski believes there is a lack of particular interest among CEI members to further enhance their cooperation, as each country that joins the EU integrates into a large European market of over 500 million people.
Once they belong to a more “elite club,” he said, political elites in those countries no longer feel the need to expend institutional, state, and political energy on loose or informal alliances such as CEFTA or the Open Balkan.