The Balkan Regional Youth Forum 2018 – Intercultural Dialogue and Cooperation, an activity of European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA Skopje) started in Macedonia. The forum is supported by WBF and EU, alluding to the emigration of the youth from the countries of the region.
The forum brings together 60 young people from WB6 region and is focused on participation and involvement of youth in the decision making process on local level. Participants highlighted that the engagement of young people in decision making, is vital for the democracy and development of our region.
“Young people are the hope of the region because without Southeast Europe we cannot have a real Europe”, French Ambassador to Macedonia Mr. Thimonier said in his speech.
“This Forum is bringing youth from the region of WB and is strongly promoting people to people contacts and our regional cooperation, which are the main aims behind the WBF as one of the supporters of this initiative. We believe that trough this type of projects we contribute toward better understanding of our shared common values that are leading toward a faster EU integration of our region” – mentioned Antoaneta Ivanova, as representative of WBF.
Mr. Sasa Bogdanovic, Mayor of Municipality of Centar, Macedonia, Mr. Lutfi Haziri, Member of the Governing Board of ALDA and Ms. Eliska Gerthnerova from the EU Delegation in Skopje greeted the event at the opening session.
This project aims at structuring regional thematic cooperation and coordination between Civil Society and public authorities to improve environment for youth activism and participation, in particular of young people with fewer opportunities. The project will be addressing these issues through promoting the culture of regional dialogue and co-operation among youth in particular, as the main target group and perceived as a resource having transformative potential with regard to the traditional cultural paradigms in the Balkans.
