21 April 2023
It is widely recognized that societies that tend to disregard the potential of their young and educated members lead them to seek opportunities elsewhere. One of the main problems that Bosnia & Herzegovina and the rest of the Western Balkan countries face is in fact the brain drain. A multi-level systemic cooperation among the different stakeholders of EUSAIR and INTERREG IPA is crucial to attracting young people closer to the available instruments and opportunities. In fact, youth has been a priority of the Bosnian Presidency of EUSAIR and there is a momentum to further work on making INTERREG IPA programmes more “youth-friendly”.
In cooperation with the EUSAIR Chairmanship of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Youth Council of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, CDI organised on 20th of April the seminar on “EUSAIR and INTERREG IPA programmes: opportunities for education institutions and local communities”.
Gathered at the Europe House, in the very heart of Sarajevo, Ms Krisela Hackaj, Executive Director of CDI introduced the participants with the “Raising awareness on the Youth Manifesto in the Western Balkans” project implemented by Cooperation and Development Institute in Albania in partnership with DG Regio and encouraged the participants to actively engage in the upcoming EUSAIR Forum in order to meet INTERREG and EUSAIR stakeholders, network, voice up their ideas and needs and better understand the opportunities that different programmes and initiatives offer for young people.
Mr Midhat Dzemic from the Directorate of European Integration shared with the young audience that the EUSAIR Bosnia & Herzegovina Presidency Programme has several priorities, besides Enlargement. One of the main priorities is the brain drain issue which is directly connected to young people. “During the presidency we paid the greatest attention to young people because only the EUSAIR strategy is missing a youth council” said Mr Dzemic. Participants were invited to be part of the 8 edition of the EUSAIR Annual Forum being organised from 23 to 25 of May in Sarajevo.
A brief presentation of the Cohesion Policy, Youth Manifesto and upcoming initiatives involving young people, was done by Mr Gilles Kittel, Team Leader – IPA, Enlargement Negotiations and EUSAIR, DG REGIO, European Commission. “If we want to change the situation, we must do it together” mentioned Mr Kittel during his direct conversation with young people.
Ms Sanja Vukadin, Advisor for Transnational Cooperation Programmes, DEI & Program Coordinator for ADRION programme shared some best practices of projects supported by Adrion programme, focused on opening of new masters, summer school, bootcamps and other different educational activities.
Ms Céline LIEVRE, Communications Officer of the EURO-MED Programme presented the added value of involving young people in territorial cooperation: Networking, experience, skills, employment are some of the opportunities that young people gain, being them interns from universities or within the Interreg Volunteers Youth programme.
When asked about suggesting recommendations for the young people in WB6, Mr Fons Janssen, from the Core Group Youth Manifesto, highlighted that “Youth should feel this common responsibility towards topics like biodiversity, climate, equal exchange of talents between all the WB6 young people with the Northern part of Europe and this ambition to work together on solving the coming global challenges.” He concluded by inviting everyone to be part of the “Youth Manifesto Group” created on Linkedin.
Dr. Amila Pilav Velic, School of Economics and Business University of Sarajevo focused on the student’s involvement in such projects and suggested the legal regulation of the role of students in order to increase the number of their participation.
Representative from Bosnian youth NGOs, Mr Jasmin Jasarevic the General Manager of PRONI, talked about his long experience in the sector and the immediate need for the simplification of the procedures so that young people and youth NGOs can apply and benefit from the INTERREG cross-border calls.
The panel discussion of this seminar was moderated by Iman Maslic, from the Youth Council of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Consult here:
Powerpoint Presentation:
Directorate for European Integration
More information about CDI’s engagement in “Raising awareness on the Youth Manifesto in the Western Balkans” can be found here.
