Youth was the main priority of the EU – Balkan Summit held in Paris on the 4th July 2016 that gathered the political leaders from the Balkans and EU. To prove their engagement towards youth, prosperity of the Balkan Region and regional cooperation, the political leaders have signed the agreement to launch RYCO - Regional Youth Cooperation Office. This regional initiative has the aim to promote reconciliation and cooperation between the youth in the six participating Western Balkans countries.
In the margins of the event, leaders and representatives of the countries participated in "Connecting Youth - Western Balkans Youth Conference".The main purpose of the conference was finding a way to strengthen youth cooperation between the Western Balkans countries and the EU-member states. Ivana Dimitrovska, director of ALDA Skopje, participated in the event that focused on developing new strategies and plans that would enhance youth participation and foster collaboration between the young people in the region.
One of the topics discussed ware youth participation and youth mobility. ALDA representatives shared experience in both topics since the Balkan Platform for youth participation and dialogue activities encourage youth participation. Last year the partners of the Platform made extensive research on this topic gathering the practices from 5 Balkan countries: Youth participation in the Balkans. Moreover, this year research will be focused on youth mobility in the Balkan region.
The conference was organized by the European Commission and the Government of the French Republic, but it was supported by the European Youth Forum and the SALTO South East Europe Resource Centre. A follow-up conference will be organized by SALTO South East Europe Resource Centre in Ljubljana in September, which will focus on identifying an action plan for developing the Positive Agenda for the Youth.
The conclusions of the conference can be found HERE.
Information about RYCO is available HERE.