Previous week, a representative of the Institute for Youth Development KULT participated in the first Erasmus+ Forum of Western Balkan Youth. The 2-day Forum gathered civil society organisations from the Western Balkan countries that have been using the programme. Besides youth from Montenegro and CSO representatives, the Forum gathered representatives of relevant European, regional and national institutions in order to consider the possibilities of using the programme and exchange experiences and information on the previous usage of the programme and to work together on recommendations for increasing the usage of the programme for the Western Balkan region that includes Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After 2 years of implementing the greatest youth programme in Europe, today’s Forum was a chance for the participants to learn more about the results of the whole programme and also about the concrete steps being taken in the countries of the Western Balkan. The Berlin Process initiative was particularly discussed during the Forum, and it was started by Albania and Serbia with the purpose of establishing a regional youth office in the Western Balkan countries according to the Franco-German Office model.
As a member of an organisation that works on developing concrete opportunities for youth in BiH, the representative of the Institute for Youth Development KULT had the opportunity to exchange opinions and experiences in the process of developing the Federal Youth Strategy and the importance of using this programme for the purpose of supporting youth and the institutions that focus on youth.
The aim of the Forum was to draw particular attention to youth of this region in the social and political life in Europe in general and to observe the importance of using the Erasmus+ programme from the perspective of European integrations.
Conclusions and recommendations made by the participants during the 2-day Forum will be delivered to all the national authorities in the regional countries and to the European Commission that implements the Erasmus+ programme.
The Erasmus+ is a programme of the European Union for education, training, youth and sports for 2014 – 2020. The Erasmus + programme includes all the European and international programmes and the initiatives of the European Union in the areas of education, training, youth and sports. The Erasmus+ will replace the 7 existing programmes: the Lifelong Learning Programme (with subprogrammes Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, Comenius and Grundtvig), Youth in Action and 5 programmes of international cooperation (Erasmus Mundus, Tempus, Alfa, Edulink and programme of cooperation with industrial countries and territories). The programme is introducing support for the area of sports for the first time.
The Erasmus+ aims to strengthen knowledge, skills and employment of European citizens and also to improve education, training and work in areas of youth and sports. The 7-year programme will have a budget of 14.7 billion Euros which is an increase of 40% in comparison to the existing programme budgets.
The Erasmus+ in Podgorica was organised by the Association for Democratic Prosperity – Zid and the SALTO Resource Centre from Ljubljana with the support of the Directorate for Youth and Sports of Montenegro. Besides representatives of the Institute for Youth Developemnt KULT from BiH, the Forum was also attended by the Point of Contact for the Programme in BiH and a representative of the Committee for Coordinating Youth Issues in BiH.
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