Danube - CEP

Youth Shaping the Danube Region: Reflections from Our Interactive Workshop at the 14th EUSDR Annual Forum

20. 11. 2025 | Danube, PR, Regional cooperation, Youth

Young people across the Danube Region are stepping forward with ideas, motivation, and a strong desire to shape the future. This spirit was at the heart of our interactive workshop Youth Engagement and Active Citizenship in the Danube Region, held on 6 November 2025 during the 14th EUSDR Annual Forum in Sarajevo. Bringing together representatives of the Danube Youth Council, the Danube Youth Organizations Network, and the Enter:Change initiative, the workshop created a vibrant space for honest dialogue, shared experiences, and forward-looking proposals. Designed as a World Café, the session encouraged participants to rotate among discussion tables, exchange perspectives, and collectively explore how youth can play a meaningful role in democratic governance and regional cooperation.

Youth as Contributors Today — Not Only Tomorrow

A strong message echoed throughout the room: young people are not passive observers. They are already contributing to shaping the Danube Region, and they want to be recognised as equal partners in decision-making. Participants highlighted why their involvement matters: they bring creativity, technological confidence, a long-term outlook, and the courage to challenge old patterns. They are open-minded, results-oriented, and motivated by a genuine sense of responsibility for the world around them. For many, meaningful participation is closely tied to trust in institutions and a belief that their voices can lead to real impact.

Building Stronger Youth Networks Across the Region

Representatives from the Danube Youth Organizations Network reflected on the growth of youth-led initiatives and the importance of building stronger, more sustainable networks. They emphasised the value of improved visibility, alumni engagement, and new links between young people, local authorities, NGOs, and communities along the Danube. Better fundraising opportunities and shared purpose were also identified as essential elements for the network’s future development. The discussion reaffirmed the need for transnational cooperation — not only to connect young people, but also to create lasting partnerships and shared solutions to common challenges.

A New Generation of Leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Enter:Change initiative shared insights from its work with young leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, focusing on leadership skills, democratic participation, anti-corruption, interethnic dialogue, and resilience to disinformation. Their central question — whether young leaders can pave a more cooperative political path — sparked reflections on the need for cultural change, institutional openness, and long-term support. Participants stressed that progress requires more accessible EU funding for emerging youth initiatives, stronger support for civil society, and wider opportunities that convince talented young people to remain engaged in their home communities rather than seeking prospects elsewhere.

Key Takeaways: What Young People Need to Thrive

Across all discussions, several common themes emerged:

Meaningful involvement: Youth want more than symbolic participation; they want structured, long-term channels to influence decision-making.
Capacity-building: Leadership training, critical thinking, communication skills, and digital literacy are essential tools for empowered citizenship.
Cross-border cooperation: Mobility, exchange, and shared learning strengthen connections and help address regional challenges together.
Supportive ecosystems: Youth-led initiatives need sustained funding, mentorship, and visibility — not isolated, short-term projects.

The workshop’s outcomes reflect the priorities and aspirations of young people across the Danube Region

Looking Ahead

The enthusiasm and maturity demonstrated by the workshop participants confirmed once again that youth are ready to contribute — not only to the future, but to the present of the Danube Region. Their perspectives are essential for building trust, strengthening governance, and enhancing cooperation across borders. As Priority Area 10, we remain committed to supporting youth engagement, creating opportunities for dialogue, and working together with our partners to ensure that young people continue to shape the direction of the Danube Region. More about Priority Area 10

Invitation – Conference “Towards Knowledge-driven Society and Professions of the Future”

4. 5. 2023 | Danube, PR

The green and digital transition has profoundly affected societies worldwide, moving them towards an ever-changing environment. The digital revolution and the move towards green transition have opened up new opportunities for individuals, organisations and countries, heavily impacting the labour market and transforming societies in the Danube region and broader.

But just what will be the role of knowledge in these societies of the future, how will the changes affect the cooperation in the Danube region, and how can our societies adapt?

The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation of the Republic of Slovenia is organising a two-day hybrid international conference titled “Towards Knowledge-driven Society and Professions of the Future”, which will take place at the Congress Centre Brdo at Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia, on 17 and 18 May 2023.

This event, held within the scope of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube region (EUSDR) and organised with the support of the Priority Area 7 of the EUSDR, will bring together experts, educational institutions, youth and policymakers from across Europe to explore the role of knowledge in society in our rapidly changing world.

The conference will focus on the expected transformation of the knowledge-driven society, the implications for the current and future needs of the labour market, and the effect of digital transformation. It will provide a platform for sharing ideas and experiences and identifying emerging trends while engaging strategic foresight perspectives. The event will also aim to foster international collaboration and policy synergies and significantly contribute to the 2023 Slovenian Presidency of the EUSDR.

The event is planned in a hybrid format, with some 100 participants attending in person and a broad audience of registered online participants.

You can register here until 12 May.

More information about the event can be found on the EUSDR website: https://danube-region.eu/danube-events/conference-on-knowledge-driven-society/.

Last TalentMagnet newsletter out!

13. 12. 2022 | Danube, PR

The TalentMagnet consortium is happy to present the last eNewsletter of the project!

Two years of the project have already gone by in a flash, and the consortium has created important outputs, completed their pilot actions, tried out the tools prepared in the scope of the project, and more. Presentation of local plans for talent attraction and retention, all project activities, and a chat with TalentMagnet stakeholders were all a part of the final conference in Ptuj, Slovenia.

But we won’t spoil more about the content of the eNewsletter – you can read it here.

For more information about the TalentMagnet project, check out the Danube Transnational Programme website or TalentMagnet Facebook page.

Slovenia takes over the EUSDR Presidency

2. 12. 2022 | Danube, PR

With the Opening event held on 1 December 2022 at Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia begins its year of the Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR). The event’s participants were welcomed by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Marko Štucin, who, in his opening address, emphasised Slovenia’s support for Ukraine – the country that presided over the Danube Strategy before Slovenia.

In his address, Mr Štucin encouraged further cooperation in macro-regions. He emphasised the unique role of EU macro-regions, which offer the possibility for all countries, both EU members and non-members, to participate equally.

Sławomir Tokarski, Director of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), focused on the importance of continuing to facilitate the enlargement process in his address, commending the decision that Slovenia puts facilitation of enlargement as one of its focuses during the Presidency. Nataša Goršek Mencin, Deputy Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Slovenia, emphasised the importance of quick action and support of the EUSDR for Ukraine in the face of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and welcomed Slovenia’s decision to continue supporting Ukraine in its Presidency programme and support the empowerment of all actors in the Danube Strategy. The first part was concluded by Ms Nadija Afanasieva, representative of the Ukrainian National Coordination of the Danube Strategy. She thanked the TRIO Presidencies for their support and expressed her satisfaction that Slovenia will include the topics addressed by Ukraine during its EUSDR Presidency in its programme.

In the second part, Ms Petra Česen Čatar, Slovenian National Coordinator for the Macroregional Strategies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, presented the programme of the Slovenian Presidency and its institutional priorities. The thematic priorities of the Presidency were touched upon by Mr Jernej Grahor, representative of the Centre for European Perspective and coordinator of Priority Area 10, Mr Peter Volasko, representative of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports of the Republic of Slovenia and Mr Franc Žepič, representative of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Republic of Slovenia and coordinator of Priority Area 1b.

The Slovenian EUSDR Presidency will focus on the future development of the Danube Region and on the empowered cooperation of all EUSDR participating countries. Given that the Danube Region is one of the most heterogeneous and diverse regions in Europe, with nine EU and five non-EU countries, the Slovenian Presidency will prioritise the involvement and capacity-building of key stakeholders participating in the EUSDR.

To act as a promoter and facilitator of macro-regional cooperation between all countries and all macro-regional strategies, the Slovenian EUSDR Presidency has the following institutional priorities:

Empowering involvement in the EUSDR
Improving the strategic governance of EUSDR and macro-regional strategies
Youth involvement and its role in the EUSDR
Embedding process – evaluation and further steps

Taking into account the acceleration of the green and digital transition that will steer the transformation of societies and affect cooperation and connectivity, and recognising the challenges to transport and energy security in the region, the thematic priorities of the Presidency will focus on the expected transformation of societies and the role of knowledge in such societies and professions of the future, as well as transport and energy challenges in the region.

The Opening event of the Slovenian Presidency of the EUSDR continued with an informal discussion among EUSDR National Coordinators and Priority Area Coordinators, focusing on empowering involvement, strengthening the ownership of countries in the EUSDR and unlocking the potential of macroregional cooperation for non-EU countries.

Slovenia will hold the Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region from 1 November 2022 to 31 October 2023, with the conclusion at the 12th EUSDR Annual Forum, which Slovenia will hold on 24 and 25 October 2023 in Brdo pri Kranju.

INVITATION: National Participation Day Slovenia

11. 11. 2022 | Danube, PR

EUSDR Priority Area 10 ˝Institutional Capacity and Cooperation˝ together with the the Foster Europe Foundation, in Austria, and the Danube Civil Society Forum invite you to the second National Participation Day – Slovenia.

Civil Society, Academia, local authorities active in the realms of environment, participation, health, social care, social innovation, good governance, transparency, open data, tourism, culture, river and water management, transport energy, labour market and migration, education, youth, and other issues in Slovenia or in a trans-national cooperation or with a connection to the Adriatic -Ionian, Western Balkan, Alpine or Danube Region are welcome.

The event will take place on Thursday, 17th of November from 8:30 – 14:00 in Ljubljana (CITY Hotel, Dalmatinova ulica 15)

What is a National Participation Day?

A National Participation Day, NPD, is a regular (annual) meeting open to all interested active or potential stakeholders of the Danube Strategy in Slovenia. The NPDs specifically address civil society organisations and their networks, local actors from municipality level, academia, public authorities on the local and regional level, national institutions active in the EUSDR and EUSDR Priority Coordinators (PACs) based in the country, as well as the National Coordinator (NC). The NPDs are open to interested stakeholders from abroad, such as representatives from PACs, academia, umbrella organisations (CODCR, DCSF), and civil society. The NPD is an important link:

between the national public actors (ministries, national agencies, NC, PACs, etc.) and the interested stakeholders active in the country,
that gives stakeholders the possibility to meet and exchange information in view of possible cooperation on a macro-regional level,
that gives stakeholders the possibility to inform themselves about ongoing projects, calls or other possible financing programs or instruments in the EUSDR between the supra-national activities of the EUSDR, at the Annual Fora and the annual Danube Participation Days.

Aims of a NPD

The NPD is a forum for stakeholders to report on their work concerning the Danube Strategy, experience, perspective, and planning on both state and non-state levels for mutual information and opinion building on a national level. Therefore, the respective national situation will be the priority in the thematic programming.

The NPD is open to stakeholders active in the realms of environment, participation, health, social care, social innovation, good governance, transparency, open data, tourism, culture, river and water management, transport energy, labour market and migration, education, and youth, nationally or in a trans-national cooperation.

The NPD creates with its state-actor – non-state-actor dialogue and the mutual information of either side a platform to build trust, share information and contribute to an informed and active EUSDR public in the country. This contributes to a capacity building of multi-sectoral and multi-level, trans-regional, trans-national cooperation on the local, regional, and national levels.

We will have an open dialogue and exchange on the Slovenian Presidency in the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, and the role of Slovenia in EU macroregional strategies in general.

Registration is open:

on the email [email protected]

And the online survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdeqMQoDybXEfTlmc54FIg-bmBPwYrVIdp1_W5ySC9og9DpfQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

For further questions please contact: [email protected]

AGENDA OF THE EVENT

TalentMagnet final conference on November 9 in Ptuj

28. 10. 2022 | Danube, PR

The consortium of the TalentMagnet project (Interreg Danube) is delighted to invite you to the project conference: TalentMagnet in practice: Together for Talent-Friendly Cities on November 9th 2022.

Is your city experiencing brain drain? Do bright, talented people move to other cities?

Learn how to attract and retain young talents and become a TalentMagnet city. Or – if you are a young talent – enjoy being “magnetized” by talent-friendly cities!

We invite you to join the closing event, where the focus will be on the practical aspects of talent attraction and retention – international practitioners, prominent experts, and city representatives will share their knowledge and practical experience – tips and tricks that you can apply in your own city immediately after the conference!

Intervention logic, strategies, actions, tools, and a wide range of good practices from various cities will be presented in an easy-to-use format, with the aim of transferring knowledge and practices to other cities facing similar challenges.

Knowledge and practices reflecting the latest scientific results and the combined experience of the most prestigious experts and practitioners in the field – accumulated during the 3-year-long hard work of our international consortium with partners from 10 countries.

TalentMagnet project addresses major societal (demographic and labour market) challenges caused by the outmigration of highly-educated young people, primarily from small and medium-sized towns in the Danube Region (brain drain).

The conference will be held in the scenic and historic town of Ptuj in Slovenia, hosted by the leading partner of the TalentMagnet project, Scientific Research Centre Bistra Ptuj and Municipality of Ptuj on 9th November 2022. Participating in the conference is free of charge.

REGISTER: Please sign up for the event by filling out the registration form until 5th November 2022.

VENUE: The Dominican Monastery (Muzejski trg 1, 2250 Ptuj) has preserved its medieval architecture, with baroque features added at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries.

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