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Author: WeBalkans

YEAs join EU clean-up activity in Kosovo

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in News.

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.

State of the Union address 2022 by President Ursula von der Leyen

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The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will deliver her third State of the Union address to the European Parliament on 14 September 2022. As every year, the address will take stock of the achievements so far and set out her vision for the future.  The speech will be followed by a plenary debate.

 

After two years of pandemic and with the war continuing to rage on the European continent following Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, the President of the European Commission will present major announcements to address these challenges and set out her vision for the future of the European Union. Given the particular geopolitical context, this year, even more than in the past, the State of the Union address is expected growing interest also outside the EU.

 

The SOTEU 2022 will also be broadcast Live on Ebs, on the Commission’s Social Media channels: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and Telegram – as well as on President von der Leyen’sTwitter, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.

Green for Growth Fund to enhance energy and resource efficiency for businesses and households in Kosovo

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The Green for Growth Fund (GGF) has provided a €7 million subordinated loan to its partner, BKT Kosovo. Proceeds will strengthen the bank’s capital base and enable BTK Kosovo to increase its energy and resource efficiency lending in urban and semi-urban areas of Kosovo to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), private individuals, as well as renewable energy projects.

 

The facility aims to strengthen the bank’s capacities to advance sustainable long-term green financing. The investment is expected to contribute to 4,800 tons of CO2 emissions reductions per year and 21,800 MWh of primary energy annual savings. This is the equivalent of avoiding greenhouse gas emissions from over 1000 gasoline powered passenger vehicles driven for one year. Complementing the facility, BKT Kosovo will benefit from technical assistance in line with the fund’s “Deep Greening” initiative which aims to build sustainability into BKT’s core business operations, improve their environmental and social management system, and strengthen their green lending capacities.

EU infrastructure financing for new motorway section in Republika Srpska

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The first motorway section to be completed along Corridor Vc in the Republika Srpska (RS), running from Johovac to Rudanka, was opened at a ceremony attended by the Serb Member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Presidency, Milorad Dodik, the RS President Željka Cvijanović and representatives of the RS government, RS Autoputevi, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the EU Office in Bosna and Herzegovina.  
The 6.1 km section was completed thanks to an EU grant of €15 million, which facilitated further financing in the form of favourable loans worth almost €70 million from the EBRD. The Johovac to Rudanka section ensures a direct connection to the Banja Luka – Doboj motorway and the existing M17 main road in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It complements the Vukosavlje – Johovac and Rudanka – Putnikovo Brdo sections, being built by RS Autoputevi. Passenger and freight travel speed along the section will increase from 60 km/h to 100 and 120 km/h.  
As well as faster and safer journeys, EU-supported motorway projects along Corridor Vc deliver economic benefits by supporting connectivity in the Western Balkans as well as between the Western Balkans and the EU Single Market, which is the world’s largest economic area. Governments and taxpayers continue to benefit from the highly favourable financial conditions offered for these EU-supported infrastructure projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.