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Author: WeBalkans

New Frontex operational cooperation with North Macedonia

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in News.

On 23 September the Commission proposed the signing of an agreement between the EU and North Macedonia on Frontex’s operational activities. The proposals put forward by the Commission will strengthen Frontex’s capacity in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood, helping North Macedonian authorities to manage irregular migration, fight smuggling, and enhance security at the EU’s external borders. In line with the European Border and Coast Guard Regulation, the status agreement with North Macedonia will include strong provisions for the protection of fundamental rights and compliance monitoring.

 

The dialogue on this status agreement started in 2018. Other status agreements have been signed with partner countries in the Western Balkans: with Albania in October 2018, Montenegro in October 2019, and Serbia in November 2019.  A similar status agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina is under negotiation.

YEAs participate in EuroPride 2022 Week activities in Serbia

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The EuroPride 2022 Week that took place this month in Belgrade started with the opening session of the international human rights conference that was attended also by Serbia’s YEAs Adrijana Nikitović, Dimitrije Prokopović, Dragana Grahovac, Teodora Cekić, and Velimir Milošev.

 

YEAs also attended other sessions of the conference including; Western Balkans vs. the EU: Ways of Tackling Discrimination through Institutional Mechanisms, The Significance of Pride for Equality in the Balkans, The role of Legislators working on equality in Central and Eastern Europe, and the closing ceremony.

 

Apart from the conference, YEA also joined the Pride March that was organised on 17 September. The march gathered numerous activists, diplomats, and citizens from the region, the EU and outside Europe who danced, sang and celebrated in the rhythm of rainbow colours. Participants were all united around the message that LGBTI rights are human rights, that the fight for equality is not over yet, and that they will continue walking towards their goal – a world that understands that love is love. The Pride March showed solidarity with the community, and proved that they will never walk alone.

YEA participates in “Increasing youth participation in political and decision-making processes” panel discussion in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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On 21 September, the Office of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina held a panel discussion in Banja Luka entitled: “Increasing youth participation in political and decision-making processes”. The discussion, which is part of the campaign “It All Starts with a Choice”, raised numerous topical issues such as how to motivate young voters to go out and vote, how to encourage their participation in other political processes, and questioning whether there is trust in the election process.

 

The panel included a Young European Ambassador (YEA) from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Anastasija Katić. “At the event, I had the opportunity to meet people from whom I could learn something new. Since this was the first panel discussion in which I actively participated, I can say now that I have more experience in that area. What I was glad to see was that the audience, especially young people, participated in the conversation and were quite active,” said Anastasija after the event.

 

As one of the most significant partners of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the democratisation of society, the European Union has been providing support in empowering the election system for years by training citizens, and strengthening institutional capacities. More information on the campaign “It All Starts with a Choice” is available at: www.svepocinjeizborom.europa.ba.

YEAs join EU clean-up activity in Kosovo

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On 16 September Young European Ambassadors (YEAs) joined the European Union Office in Kosovo and GIZ Kosovo who organised the Badovc/ Badovac Lake clean-up as part of this year’s EU Beach Clean-up Day. Other official partners of the clean-up were PAMKOS (the Association for Environmental Protection and Clean-up of Kosovo) and the Pastrimi Regional Waste Company. A total of more than 200 bags of litter were collected as part of the initiative. Given the high significance Badovac Lake has for the citizens of Pristina as their main drinking water supply, it was considered important to send a message about how to keep the lake litter-free while spending leisure time there.

 

The activities of the EU Beach Clean-Up Day continued afterwards at Europe House Kosovo, where around 30 Young European Ambassadors from the Western Balkans had a vibrant debate on environmental issues in the Western Balkans with EU environment specialists and Mrika Nikqi, a young environmentalist and influencer from Kosovo. Young European Ambassadors from all over the Western Balkans shared their personal ideas on small yet significant steps that can be taken to make a positive difference and support a clean environment. Examples included  cleaning and reducing waste in our communities, producing short awareness videos about environmental protection, and promoting alternative means of transportation.

 

The EU Beach Clean-Up campaign is a global initiative to protect the ocean, co-organised by the EU and the UN, together with the Smurfs. The event takes place every September around World Coastal Clean-Up Day, and is important for awareness-raising around environmental issues. In 2022, the fifth edition of the EU Beach Clean-Up campaign targets youth under the European Year of Youth umbrella. Within the overarching theme, “United against marine litter”, the next generation are working hand-in-hand with international organisations, national leaders, and NGOs to combat this problem.

The EU and Kosovo sign agreement for the first IPA III annual financing programme

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On 13 September, Kosovo and the European Union signed the first annual financing agreement under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance III (IPA III), worth €63.96 million. Following the signing and entry into force of the Financial Framework Partnership Agreement between the EU and Kosovo, this was one of the last formal steps enabling the gradual disbursement of the EU’s financial assistance to Kosovo under the IPA III framework partnership agreement covering the 2021-2027 period. The Assembly of Kosovo will also need to ratify the agreement.

 

Through 14 consecutive annual financing programmes from 2007 to 2020, under IPA I and IPA II, the EU has thus far provided Kosovo with more than €1.21 billion in financial assistance.

 

“The initial €63.96 million from IPA III will be used to enhance the competitiveness of Kosovo’s agri-food sector and to help achieve the EU’s economic accession criteria. Funding will further be directed towards improving the protection of human rights and advancing gender equality, as well as improving the provision of municipal services and security and public safety in Kosovo,” said the EU Ambassador in Kosovo, Tomáš Szunyog.

 

The annual IPA III funding will be combined with additional €16 million from the Kosovo Government and funding by other partners amounting to €3.8 million. The EU remains Kosovo’s largest trading partner and provider of financial assistance.

The European Union donates minivan to Bosnian-Podrinje Canton Goražde

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The EU has continued their support to police agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina in their day-to-day operations in the field. As part of this support, they have donated a minivan worth BAM 79,900 to the Ministry of Interior of Bosnian-Podrinje Canton Goražde. The van will enable greater capacity in the transportation of people as well as allow greater mobility of police officers in the field – both in the canton and, if necessary, throughout BiH.

 

Since 2018, the European Union has continued to support Bosnia and Herzegovina in migration and border management systems in the context of the increased number of refugees and migrants present in the country since the end of 2017. So far, the European Union has invested more than €8 million in supporting police agencies in BiH through procurement of equipment and capacity building. Since 2017, the European Union has allocated over €100 million to supporting migration and border management systems in BiH.

 

The “EU Support to Migration and Border Management in Bosnia and Herzegovina” project is funded by the European Union through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance and is implemented by the International Organisation for Migration in partnership with the Danish Refugee Council, UNFPA, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Unicef.

EU supports the first Talent Picnic Festival in BiH

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Some 3,000 young people from across Bosnia and Herzegovina enjoyed the first edition of the Talent Picnic Festival held on 9-10 September in Sarajevo. During the two days of the festival, young musicians, bands, artists, and designers had the opportunity to present their musical and artistic creativity. After this first edition, the festival should become a regular event.

 

For two nights in a row the audience enjoyed concerts by well-known regional and Bosnian musicians and musical groups. On Friday night, Post Rem, Muha, Grše, and TBF ensured a good atmosphere while Saturday night was reserved for Mustra Orchestra, Frenkie, Kontra, Indigo, Z ++, and Velahavle. All shows and activities within the festival were free, and many visitors took the opportunity to meet some of the famous artists from the region in person.

 

The EU Delegation and Special Representation in BiH supported the Talent Picnic Festival as part of the EU4All program, which aims to encourage positive European awareness among citizens so that they become consistent advocates of the EU integration process for the benefit of their local communities. The programme promotes common European values ​​and identity, equality, social inclusion, diversity, active citizenship and non-discrimination in BiH.

Giving credit to creations of the mind

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The creative industries in Kosovo reinforce their intellectual property position with EU assistance.

Festivals are an established structure for cultural events in Kosovo. Dominated by film and music, there is an abundance of them during the summer months. Some of them stand out with their cinematography entries and unique screening venues, for example Dokufest in Prizren and Anibar in Peja/Peć, as well as the effect they have in transforming the host cities during the festival. These cultural hubs have taken the initiative to tackle current affairs through film, but also to address the issues that creators face, including intellectual property (IP) protection.

“Audio-visual content is among the most heavily pirated material.”

Copyright as an EU requirement

Kosovo does not have functioning collecting societies, which are bodies authorised to collect copyright fees for the use of creative works and to pay the owners of those rights, such as songwriters, authors, artists, and publishers. This gap has influenced the way in which society perceives the requirement to pay for materials under copyright, and created a need to raise awareness on how copyright affects creative industries, including creators in film.

“Film festivals are visible occasions to disseminate information about the role of copyright,” says Ioannis Kikkis, an expert on copyright, on the opportunity to talk to industry representatives directly. Along with other prominent specialists in the field, he presented real life examples of how creators and rightsholders were “robbed of opportunities” at this summer’s Dokufest and Anibar festivals. He confirms that some viewers do not have a clear understanding of why copyright is important for this industry, and why it needs to be respected. Kikkis has been in Kosovo for over two years now, and is working with an EU-funded project to strengthen the position of institutions in intellectual property through awareness-raising.

“Copyright is at the foundation of all film production. It gives creators the confidence that they own their work, and that they will be entitled to manage the distribution of the finished product,” says Kikkis. “At the same time, audio-visual content is among the most heavily pirated material.”Festival-goers also learnt about EU best practices for opportunities deriving from copyright, including film funding, protecting animation creations in the gaming industry, and other topics on the economics of copyright-based industries.

“Countries are adopting a strategic approach to the role of intellectual property in unleashing the potential of creativity to the benefit of creators and society as a whole.”

About the project

The EU Support to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) project supports the legal, administrative, and structural capacities of Kosovo institutions in charge of the development and enforcement of these rights. It has assisted Kosovo in drafting a legislative framework in line with European Union standards. It assists institutions to have a fully functional IP system, aligned with EU practices, which provides a solid framework for boosting economic transactions involving intellectual property rights.

Protecting rights to inspire innovation

Works that require registration, rather than copyright, are creations that fall under industrial property like trademarks, industrial design, and patents. Kosovo registers thousands of trademarks through its Industrial Property Agency every year. Efforts have been made in recent years to encourage local businesses to do more in this regard, by registering their products and ensuring protection becomes more competitive both at home and abroad. The protection of existing products provokes the minds of creators to invent new things, introducing innovative solutions for modern-day problems that also reward the rightful owners of innovations in the long run.

Meanwhile, intellectual property is gaining wider acceptance as a crucial element in the creative economy. “Countries are adopting a strategic approach to the role of intellectual property in unleashing the potential of creativity to the benefit of creators and society as a whole,” says Kikkis.

Screening of fundamentals cluster as part of negotiations process kicks off with Albania and North Macedonia

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Today, the European Commission resumed the screening process with Albania and North Macedonia. Experts from the European Commission, Albania and North Macedonia have begun examining EU laws and policies under Cluster 1 on Fundamentals.

 

The analytical examination of the body of EU laws (acquis), the so-called screening, enables candidate countries to familiarise themselves with the EU laws and standardsand the obligations they entail. It also allows to examine the countries’ levels of preparedness and plans to further alignment, and thus to obtain preliminary indications of the issues that will most likely come up in the negotiations. Screening is the first step in the accession negotiation process. For Albania and North Macedonia it started already on 19 July 2022, immediately after the Intergovernmental Conferences. The screening process is structured along six thematic clusters. These clusters encompass the relevant acquis chapters along broad themes related to good governance, internal market, economic competitiveness and connectivity.

 

The Screening exercise consists of two phases:

 

      1.the explanatory session where the Commission departments explain chapter by chapter the EU acquis.

 

      2.the bilateral session where each candidate country is invited to present where it stands, by chapter, in its preparations to adopt and implement the acquis.

 

The European Commission will evaluate and report to the Council on the degree of preparedness of a candidate country on a given cluster, on the candidate country’s plans for future preparations and on preliminary indications of the issues that will most likely come up in the negotiations.

 

The Council will decide, by unanimity, whether to define opening benchmarks on each negotiating cluster, on the basis of the proposal from the Commission in the screening report.

Advancing youth work in Serbia

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An EU-funded project supports a youth organisation to increase the quality of youth-related programmes in Serbia.

N.A.P.O.R. – the National Association of Youth Workers – is a non-governmental organisation from Serbia that was founded in 2009 by civil society organisations who do youth work in Serbia. They were prompted to initiate the Association from a need to increase the quality of youth-related programmes. Specifically, there was a need to set standards for non-formal youth education, supporting those who train young people, and also working with public institutions who contribute in the field. More than ten years later, NAPOR has grown to be one of the most important players in the field of youth programmes in Serbia, and currently counts 48 organisations under its umbrella.

NAPOR contributes to youth empowerment in a number of ways. These include ensuring quality standards among their members through regular monitoring and accreditation processes of basic performance standards; education programmes for youth workers and leaders, including a range of training modules, as well as through promoting ethics in youth work. The latter is a particularly important component given the issues in communicating in the digital space. In addition, the organisation is deeply involved in advocating for the recognition of youth work in general, in particular among public institutions such as ministries, municipalities and other actors who are involved in supporting youth work.

“We are very professional in our field, specifically in relation to youth work. But we came to realise that we had serious problems in areas such as fundraising, generating systems which ensure sustainability for our programmes, as well as office management and professionally communicating our impact to wider audience and stakeholders.”

Nedeljka Ivošević is a communication manager at NAPOR. She explains that with the natural growth of the organisation, serious challenges and shortcomings started to surface, in particular relating to long-term sustainability and corporate communication skills.“We are very professional in our field, specifically in relation to youth work. But we came to realise that we had serious problems in areas such as fundraising, generating systems which ensure sustainability for our programmes, as well as office management and professionally communicating our impact to wider audience and stakeholders,”says Nedeljka.

Looking for support, NAPOR got in touch with EU TACSO 3, an EU-funded project that contributes to improving capacities and strengthening the role of civil society organisations in the Western Balkans and Turkey. The EU TACSO 3 project supported NAPOR with training and mentoring which had an effect on improving their fundraising and overall financing strategy. They have improved considerably since the cooperation with EU TACSO. The organisation says that they also improved their communication with mass audiences, public institutions and donors.

“The main issue we had was how to translate specific topics and the professional terminology of youth work to audiences who don’t have background knowledge on the topic. Before EU TACSO we used technical and bureaucratic project language, but thanks to the tailor-made mentorship of our association via the EU TACSO 3 project, we received help in translating this communication into plain, straightforward and common language that is understandable by everyone, including our members and the wider community of young people.  Based on the overall feedback, I can say that the EU TACSO 3 support to us is a success story,” says Nedeljka.

“Without the support from the EU TACSO 3 project we would not have been able to reach specific audiences and have a clear vision about the future of our association.”

About the project

EU Technical Assistance to Civil Society Organisations in the Western Balkans and Turkey (EU TACSO) is a regional project, funded by the European Union that improves the capacity and role of civil society organisations (CSOs). The project assists CSOs to take an active part in democratic processes in the region, and stimulates an enabling environment for civil society and pluralistic media development.

The project works in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. The EU TACSO project is a part of the Civil Society Facility EU mechanism that provides support to CSOs in those countries that are not yet part of the EU. CSOs play an important role for the EU as key actors in supporting their countries’ accession process.

Biljana Severinova, the Communication Expert from the EU TACSO 3 project, says that they decided to support NAPOR for a number of reasons. One is because NAPOR is an organisation working closely with youth; the association works on a national concept of motivating youth to take initiative, by providing them with skills and tools which empower them. Youth support is currently at the focus of the EU and will continue to be for years to come. “The other reason is that NAPOR is not simply an organisation, but also an association which gives input and assistance to many other organisations. It was a good learning model for us on further developing our assistance methodology for the future,” says Biljana.

Nedeljka explains that the EU TACSO 3 support was instrumental in improving the overall performance of their organisation. Now they can plan ahead better and also have a better development perspective. “Without the support from the EU TACSO 3 project we would not have been able to reach specific audiences and have a clear vision about the future of our association,” says Nedeljka.

NAPOR plans to further increase their operations and support for youth work in Serbia. The organisation is currently only an association of youth organisations, but they aim to expand and turn it further into an association of youth professionals, aimed at individuals who have impact and knowledge in the field of youth work.