Milica Uvalic is currently Visiting Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence (Italy). From 1992 until recently, she was Full Professor in Economics at the University of Perugia (Italy) teaching courses on European Integration, Economic Development and Global Governance, Transition Economics, Macroeconomics, International Economics. She holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence. Formerly she was member of the UN Committee for Development Policy, Public Policy Scholar at Woodrow Wilson Centre (Washington DC) and Assistant Minister in the first post-Milošević government in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. She is an expert on the Western Balkans and wider East European region and has published widely on various topics regarding the Western Balkans, including EU - Western Balkan integration, economic development, privatization, trade, FDI, labour markets, higher education, regional cooperation and regional development. Her recent publications include a co-authored study with W. Bartlett and M. Bonomi (2022), Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans: Assessing the possible economic, social and environmental impact of the proposed flagship projects for the European Parliament and an edited book on Integrating the Western Balkans into the European Union – Overcoming mutual misperceptions (2023), Palgrave Macmillan.