On 27–30 August 2026, over one hundred young professionals, researchers and public officials from across the CEI cooperation area gathered in Kranjska Gora and Bled, Slovenia, at the Young Bled Strategic Forum (Young BSF) to discuss democracy, disinformation and the future of the Euro-Atlantic order. The Central European Initiative has renewed its support for the event recognising it as a CEI Flagship Event for the central role it plays in the region's geopolitical and youth strategies.
This year's edition opened on the premise that the future is not something happening to us, but something still being made. Framed around the idea of youth "agency" — the capacity of young people to shape, rather than simply absorb, the choices of their time — the four-day programme asked participants to read a world of shifting power and weakening rules clearly, to identify what is worth defending, and to locate the spaces where that agency can still be exercised.
Delivered with partners including the European Stability Initiative, the Centre for European Perspective, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, YATA Slovenia, the Carter Center and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the programme combined workshops on disinformation, democratic backsliding and the geopolitics of critical raw materials with high-level panels on European foreign policy after "the rupture." Participants also co-developed a post-event white paper, the Young Euro-Atlantic Resilience Strategy 2035, before joining the main Bled Strategic Forum in Bled on 31 August–1 September.
The CEI-Executive Secretariat was represented by Deputy Secretary General Zsuzsanna Király, who took part in the forum's proceedings, testifying to the attention the Organisation reserves for direct dialogue with the region's young leaders.
"Young people are not passive recipients of the future, but the protagonists of the choices that shape it. Supporting the Young BSF means giving concrete follow-up to the commitment undertaken by CEI Member States with the 2019 Trieste Declaration. The future of our societies depends to a large extent on the perspective of young citizens, who deserve particular attention and protection. The CEI's participation in the forum confirms the Organisation's will to listen directly to the new generations and to integrate their voices into the future CEI Youth Agenda."
The Young BSF stands among the concrete initiatives through which the CEI is shaping its Youth Agenda — rooted in the 2019 Trieste Declaration — improving the quality of life of young people across the region by investing in their education, equal opportunities, participation in decision-making processes, and the skills needed to face the challenges of the twenty-first century.
For more info: radovanovic@cei.int
