On the 7th of November 2019, in the Europe House in Pristina, the Balkan network for local democracy was officially launched.
The event was opened by Elbert Krasniqi, President of BNLD, Mr. Maurizio Camin, Executive director of Associazione Trentino con i Balcani, Mr. Oriano Otocan, President of ALDA Europe, as well as Ms. Stanka Parac Damjanovic, SEE Regional Program Manager of ALDA.
More than 70 representatives of the civil sector, local authorities and media gathered to take part in BNLD history being made. They had opportunity to hear about the vision and mission of the network, its origins and founders.
The founding organizations shared their experience in the process of creating the network and their favorite success stories from jointly implemented projects, as well as video testimonies from various stakeholders.
After the presentations, the participants continued to talk during the networking session, discussing the possible future activities that can be implemented with the network and how to use it in their advantage.
Balkan Network for Local Democracy is a regional network founded by the European Association for local democracy (ALDA) and 7 Local Democracy Agencies from Western Balkans, working on promotion of active citizen participation, democratic governance principles, local development and co-operation between civil society organizations and local public authorities in the Western Balkan Region.
This event is organized in the framework of the project Regional Youth Compact for Europe. Regional Youth Compact for Europe is a cooperation initiative launched by 14 CSOs from the EU, Western Balkans and Turkey, and funded by the European Union.