The concluding event of the project Central Europe and Future EU Enlargement took place from 10–11 March, 2026 in Budapest. Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) was represented by its president Grigorij Mesežnikov. 

The final presentation of project results and panel discussion was part of the Budapest Balkans Forum, which was organised on 11 March, 2026 by one of the project partners, the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs. Research Associate Rebecca Thorne (IDM) gave an overview of the project activities and highlighted some recommendations from the experts’ policy papers elaborated in the framework of the project. 

The panel featured Krševan Antun Dujmović, expert advisor at the Institute for Development and International Relations (Croatia); Filip Ilankovic, Research Fellow, Hungarian Institute of International Affairs; Stevan Kandic, Advisor to the Vice-President of the Parliament of Montenegro, and Grigorij Meseznikov (IVO). The discussion was moderated by IDM Director Sebastian Schäffer. 

One day sooner, during a roundtable discussion with an extended consortium on the premises of the Central European University, partners shared best practices and talked about how to continue the cooperation beyond the scope of the project. 

The meeting at CEU was attended by representatives of the Association for International Affairs (Czechia), Europeum (Czechia), Institute of Public Affairs (Poland), Institute for Public Affairs (Slovakia), Albanian Network for Rural Development, Institute for European Policies and Reforms (Moldova), European Policy Centre (Serbia), Ukrainian Institute for International Politics and Foreign Policy Council ‚Ukrainian Prism‘.