“Ignita 2025: On the Edge” is the inaugural edition of a new regional platform designed to bring civil society, researchers, policymakers, business community, and youth into sustained, strategic dialogue on the Western Balkans’ European future.
Set in the repurposed creativity hub of ITP Prizren, the Forum was held on October 8-10, 2025.
This year’s theme — “On the Edge”— invites civil society to reclaim its role in shaping the region’s European future, as we look into our joint regional efforts in delivering on EU accession through adaptive advocacy and grounded expertise.
Our programme director Aleksandar Macura contributed to “Carbon, Communities, and Conditionality – Who Will Carry the Green Transition in the Western Balkans?” panel. From funding gaps to fragile governance and the promise of local energy communities, the panel dived into the hard questions behind a just, transparent, and future-proof green transition.
Aleksandar has repeatedly emphasized the need for a significant change in the way priorities are selected for funding from EU assistance and loans from international financial institutions, as well as the need for greater due diligence in project preparation for financing.
The existing methods may lead to the exhaustion of borrowing capacities without achieving good results and could significantly narrow the options available to future generations.
In response to a question from the audience about the assistance received by energy-poor citizens, he reiterated the findings of a study conducted by the RES Foundation in 2023 for the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, which showed that EU assistance does not reach energy-poor citizens.
Opportunities for direct citizen and community participation in the energy transition are emerging through the implementation of legislation that enables distributed energy production by individuals and businesses, through the prosumer model and the formation of energy communities.
He invited participants to consider how these models could be further developed by building on the achievements of the Sunny Schools project, implemented by the Open Society Foundation.
Photo credits: Open Society Foundation and Ana Macura
