Elena Lazova, youth engagement worker on the project “Balkan platform for youth participation and dialogue” took part at the Youth Forum EU – Western Balkans "Connecting Youth – Moving Forward" held in Trieste, Italy on 11-12 July 2017 in the margins of the Western Balkans Summit.
This event brought together 60 young people from the EU and Western Balkans countries and they discussed common challenges and worked toward finding joint solutions.
This forum focused the discussion around four key themes identified as a priority in the region:
1) Mobility/ Exchanges/ Broadening of Horizons;
2) Social Inclusion/ Overcoming of Stereotypes;
3) Entrepreneurship
4) Youth Participation.
During the youth forum, the participants had a dialogue with political leaders from the EU and the Western Balkans, including with EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn. They also had the chance to present the main findings of their working group discussions to them.
This Youth Forum is especially important for the Youth in Macedonia and in the Balkans because they were directly involved in creating the recommendations for the work of the Governments of the Western Balkan countries.
The EU-Western Balkans Youth Forum - Connecting Youth – Moving Forward was organised by the European Commission in partnership with the Italian Government, the University of Trieste, the European Youth Forum and SALTO Youth Network.