On 6-8 June 2019, Mr Oleksandr HLEBA participated in an international conference on "The EU’s Responses to New Security Challenges in its Wider Neighbourhood: Building Resilient States and Societies" in Odessa, Ukraine. The conference was organised by the NGO Ukrainian Institute for Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution in partnership with the National University Odessa Law Academy, the University of Birmingham, UK and the Kennan Institute, Washington DC, within the framework of the Jean Monnet Spring Seminar on European Security.
Mr HLEBA presented a paper entitled "Foreign Policy Alignment of the Western Balkan Countries with the EU’s Policy towards Russia since the Annexation of Crimea". During his presentation, Mr HLEBA situated alignment with the EU’s CFSP within the enlargement process and analysed the alignment of the Western Balkan countries with the EU’s policy towards Russia since the annexation of Crimea in the context of their European integration. He focused more specifically on the cases of Montenegro and Serbia, both negotiating EU accession, and outlined the main factors which led to Montenegro’s alignment and Serbia’s non-alignment with the EU’s policy vis-à-vis Russia.