Representatives of the Institute for Youth Development KULT participated iin “Western Balkans Youth Conference” held on Monday, July 4, 2016 in Paris.
The conference gathered around 150 youth from the countries of Western Balkans and the European Union that discussed the challenges faced by youth today and tried to devise the manners of overcoming them. This gathering was an opportunity for youth to present the problems they are facing to state ministers from the area related to youth issues and to indicate to the necessity of their resolving.
During their addresses, youth emphasized that the existing European exchange programs have to be more forcefully promoted and that regional cooperation has to be stronger with developed frameworks for an easier recognition of qualifications among countries and that it is necessary to strengthen the connection between formal and non-formal education.
One of the conclusions was that the gap between education, skills and the requirements of the workplace has to be overcome by providing a greater support to obligatory internship and practice during education and that new youth buisinesses have to receive greater support through access to financing, i.e. startup capital, as well as that entrepreneurship has to be promoted more intensely among youth as a career choice.
The youth were, among others, addressed by the Minister of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Adil Osmanovi?.
Ajka Baru?i?, the representative of the Institute for Youth Development KULT and one of BiH representatives, emphasized that it was clear that Western Balkans youth share very similar problems in achieving a dignified economic and social status but that through joint thinking and dialogue they could bear quality recommendations and proposals for a clearer vision of progress, as the conference demonstrated. As she said, BiH youth find it relevant that they connect more strongly with the region so they would not feel lonely in overcoming the challenges related to youth issus and to benefit from wisdom, good practice and experience of their neighboring and other European countries.
The concept for the Regional Youth Cooperation Office – RYCO, officially established at the Summit of Leaders of Western Balkans, was also presented during the conference and as a part of which the “Western Balkans Youth Conference” was held. The Regional Youth Cooperation Office will be formed by governments of 6 regional countries – BiH, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania together with civil sector representatives.
“This Office should contribute to youth reconcilliation in this region, since many of the activities that have occured in this area were initiatives of the NGO sector. Now, for the first time, we have an initiative of regional countries that wish to establish something together”, emphasized Rejan Igor Roi? from the Commission for Coordinating Youth Issues of BiH.
The conference was concluded by Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, the Director for Western Balkans at the Directorate of the European Commission for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, stating that the future of Europe is in safe hands, since during the conference youth demonstrated that they know what to do to resolve the current issues.
The conference was organized by the European Commission and the Government of the Republic of France with the support of the European Youth Forum and the South East Europe Resource Centre.
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