On 3rd July, in light of the upcoming Western Balkans Summit on 9-10th July and as part of the Berlin Process hosted by the UK, the British Council and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are organising a meeting of the Western Balkan Extremism Research Forum.

The UK presidency of the Berlin Process set out to address concerns raised in Paris and Trieste about violent extremism. Supporting this, the UK commissioned the British Council to establish the Western Balkans Extremism Research Forum, a regional research programme assessing the dimensions of threats emanating from the Western Balkans. The research findings will be used to establish policy analysis and recommendations to provide decision-makers from host countries and the international community with a stronger evidence-base to develop effective national counter violent extremism policies and programming. The findings and views have been produced by the British Council, independent of the UK Government. All the research and policy recommendations will be made available as a public good. The research is now complete and country reports are being presented in each of the Western Balkans six capitals throughout June. On 3 July, researchers from across the Western Balkans will present their findings in Brussels. This is the first opportunity to discuss the region-wide findings and the implications for future policy and programming.