A two-day event “Back on the Agenda: EU Enlargement and the Western Balkans” organized by the Centre for European Perspective took place in Brussels, Belgium. By involving think tank representatives and youth, civil society of the Western Balkans discussed their concerns, challenges, ideas and prospects with EU representatives, policy makers and experts in four fields: democratization, participation, social affairs and reconciliation.
Public discussion at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium concludes a two-day event Back on the Agenda: EU Enlargement and the Western Balkans, organized by the Centre for European Perspective. By involving think tank representatives and youth, civil society of the Western Balkans discussed their concerns, challenges, ideas and prospects with EU representatives, policy makers and experts.
Welcome Address was delivered by Dr Gorazd Justinek, Director of the Centre for European Perspective, who emphasized the three pillars of CEP’s work: security, democratization and youth.
Mr Maciej Popowski, Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, European Commission delivered a speech on the implementation of the Western Balkan Strategy.
Public discussion continued with a dynamic dialogue between the civil society and youth representatives and the stakeholders’ representatives. Four main topics: democratization, social affairs, participation and reconciliation were addressed and each discussion involved an overview of the topic, burning issues, examples of good practices and policy recommendations.
Mr Molnár Balázs, Deputy State Secretary, Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary; Mr Peter Grk, National Coordinator for the Western Balkans, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia; Ms Marlène Bartes, European Commission – Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture; and Mr Albert Sesé Ballart, European Commission – Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture responded to the presentations and engaged in a very vivid and energetic dialogue with the audience.
Discussion was moderated by Mr Zoran Nechev, Institute for Democracy „Societas Civilis“. In the concluding remarks Ms Tanja Fajon, Member of European Parliament from Slovenia pointed out the importance of the voice of the youth and emphasised two main challenges being negative perception of the enlargement in the EU and the distrusts of people towards EU policies.
The outcomes of the two-day event, supported by the International Visegrad Fund, will be published and distributed as policy recommendations.
As announced, the Centre for European Perspective is organising a public debate in Brussels on April 11, 2018 titled Back on the Agenda: EU Enlargement and Western Balkans. As a preparation for the event and a pre-event workshop, young people from the Western Balkan countries will be invited to Brussels on April 10, 2018. World cafe discussion, youth policy boot-camp and civil society networking will take place on the evening before the public debate on the EU enlargement. The topic of democratization (corruption, democratic reforms, rule of law), social affairs (unemployment, education, brain drain), participation (youth representation, activism, giving the youth a voice) and reconciliation (peacebuilding, intercultural dialogue, interstate relations) will be discussed as a result of the application essays, written by our young participants.
The Western Balkan has returned to the agenda of the European Union. However, getting closer to the EU also brings greater responsibility. The European Commission’s motto ‘exporting stability, rather than importing instability’ must remain a strong pull factor, since it carries the idea of strengthening WB democracies and finally implementing economic and social reforms, which would have tangible results for citizens. The EU-WB enlargement strategy, numerous top-level visits by EU representatives, including a wide range of different regional initiatives, are charting the EU’s path ahead. Nevertheless, it is the empowered civil society of the Western Balkans that are best at voicing their ideas and perspectives.
One question inevitably arises: What do the youth of the Western Balkans have to say? An education system that is incompatible with the labour market, high youth unemployment, a massive brain-drain, distrust in public institutions, deep-rooted corruption and the slow post-conflict reconciliation process are only some of the everyday concerns plaguing young people in the region. Comprehensive structural reforms, the openness and inclusiveness of public institutions, more scholarships, better education and job opportunities, visa-free regime for the entire region and a chance not only to speak but also to be heard seem to be positive solutions to these challenges. The youngsters of the Western Balkans might see EU membership as the light at the end of the tunnel, but they are also fully aware that their respective governments need to do their part of the job first.
You can read the stories of the youth of the Western Balkans below.
Event is done in cooperation with Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) (Hungary), EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy (Czech Republic), Slovak Foreign Affairs Association (SFPA) and Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) and supported by International Visegrad Fund.
The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
Centre for European Perspective is organising a public debate in Brussels on April 10-11, 2018 titled Back on the Agenda: EU Enlargement and Western Balkans. Save the Date and join us!
The Western Balkan has returned to the agenda of the European Union. However, getting closer to the EU also brings greater responsibility. The European Commission’s motto ‘exporting stability, rather than importing instability’ must remain a strong pull factor, since it carries the idea of strengthening WB democracies and finally implementing economic and social reforms, which would have tangible results for citizens. The EU-WB enlargement strategy, numerous top-level visits by EU representatives, including a wide range of different regional initiatives, are charting the EU’s path ahead. Nevertheless, it is the empowered civil society of the Western Balkans that are best at voicing their ideas and perspectives.
And which part of society is more relevant for outlining the prospects for an (EU) future than the young generation?
Event is done in cooperation with Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) (Hungary), EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy (Czech Republic), Slovak Foreign Affairs Association (SFPA) and Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) and supported by International Visegrad Fund.
The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
Young are indispensable and very resourceful part of each society. Active and creative minds are important for economic development, prosperity as well as for positive outlook. We have therefore identified start-ups as one of the most active among young and decided to bring them together to discuss their views and experiences. We are most interested in their participation in policy processes and ideas how to make their lives better and meaningful in the region they share – Danube region.
As Slovenia is hosting an important regional conference related to start-up world, Podim conference, our discussion will be organized at the same time – to offer young twofold experience: sharing experiences and knowing peers from the region and listening to excellent entrepreneurs, startups as well as investors. So save the date on 15 and 16 May!
We invite two startups from each country to join us! Tickets and accommodation will be provided for best two ideas from each country*, so apply fast – only until Friday, 23.3.2018! You should apply through the link for your country below.
For the last 3 weeks a team from the Centre for European Perspective, Start:up Slovenia initiative, PODIM Conference and different start-up community experts from all over Europe (UK, Austria, Estonia, Hungary, Germany etc.) visited all six Western Balkans capitals. A real “road trip”. 😊
In each capital, we teamed up with a partner of the local start-up community and organized a workshop for young entrepreneurs, where investors, corporates and more experienced entrepreneurs forwarded their personal business experience on the new generation of future business success stories. Thank you all for a great support.
The whole idea of the project was initiated some 4 years ago and was in its “seed” phase supported by Slovenia’s Official Development Cooperation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia). The pilot project was carried out in Bosnia and Hercegovina and then expanded to Kosovo a few years later. Last year, United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office supported the whole idea and enabled to spread the programme – a vision of a more coherent and connected start-up ecosystem – through the whole region by visiting all the countries and transferring knowledge. I would like to thank the UK and the Slovenian government for all their understanding in supporting the programme.
While writing this, still waiting for the airplane in Podgorica, which was our last pit stop of the tour, I am trying to summarise what was going on for the last couple of weeks. In each capital: Belgrade, Sarajevo, Tirana, Pristina, Skopje and Podgorica, we received extremely positive feedback. In each capital, around 70 young entrepreneurs showed up. Altogether, we are thus speaking about 400 start-upers, which is an impressive number by itself.
Especially, I would like to stress extreme proactivity and huge interest of the participants at the events, who were working hard, posing questions, debating and presenting their ideas and businesses from usually 5 pm towards the late 10 pm. Interesting, the focus among the participants was never lacking, despite the late “working hours”.
In each capital, we also selected 10 most promising start-ups, who had the possibility of pitching in front of international investors and successful business men and women, providing them with priceless feedback information and suggestions for their future career.
It is not easy to explain one’s “life” idea in 180 seconds, but that is all the time you get in front of an international jury. And some of these youngsters did very well. The best ones will get the chance to come to Slovenia to the PODIM conference in May, to the largest start-up event in the region and out of those, the best two teams will receive a reward – a custom made acceleration programme in the UK. It is a life time opportunity.
All in all. Around 400 young interested entrepreneurs joined the project. Around 50 pitches in front of an international jury were presented and commented. Great numbers. Great job. This is the regional start-up ecosystem.
At the end of the road show, I have to stress again the proactivity of the start-up community in each country. One female entrepreneur, not more than 20 years old, was explaining how she can’t understand her friends, who complain all the time that there are no jobs, no possibilities, no opportunities. However, they sit all day long in bars and drink coffee and wait for a job, she added. “Why not follow your dream, establish your own company and create your own job?” were her final words.
These words coming from a young female entrepreneur were so real and down to earth, especially since they were coming from a young person and from a region, where the last decades were not the most positive.
Yet, the start-up community is a positive community by itself. Thus, successful young entrepreneurs are the positive role models for all the others in the region, who made it with hard work and believed in their dreams.
That for me, is a positive agenda in its essence. A positive agenda for the youth.
Op-ed was written by Dr Gorazd Justinek, CEO at the Centre for European Perspective.
The views expressed in CEP commentary are the views of the author alone.
