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Author: WeBalkans

Golden embroidery reloaded

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in Stories.

Modern female entrepreneurship and an ancient Montenegrin craft are being interwoven with the support of the EU.

Montenegro’s golden embroidery has been used on traditional costumes for more than three centuries, but was at risk of being totally forgotten because of shifts in taste and a break in the transmission of the craft from older to younger generations. Another reason was that even where people wanted items made with golden embroidery, applying gold on already costly national costume or silk shirts was very expensive. However, the craft has recently been given a boost with an initiative from a local Montenegrin civil society organisation and the support of the European Union.

Biserka Raičević is in her 60s, and comes from a Montenegrin family that nurtures tradition, particularly in relation to handcrafts. Although she worked as an economist for most of her life, she also continued to practising as a hobby the traditional handcrafts that she learned as a young woman. However, until recently she had never tried golden embroidery, the peak of the Montenegrin handcraft tradition. That changed when she joined the workshop organised with the support of the EU-funded ReLoAD project.

“The work on golden embroidery requires lots of patience and very specific and demanding crafting skills.”

Reviving forgotten techniques

Biserka explains that she heard about the workshop from her husband who saw the call on social media and drew her attention to the opportunity, knowing her love for handcrafts. She wasn’t sure about applying as the work on golden embroidery is very demanding, as well as being expensive because of the gold thread used on the embroidery. However, she went ahead, driven by the feeling of respect and great love for tradition though the experience taught her that “work on golden embroidery requires what she describes as “lots of patience and very specific and demanding crafting skills”.

The training was organised through the EU-funded “Preservation and development of the traditional Montenegrin craft – gold embroidery” project and included women of different ages and social backgrounds. Older experts at the craft worked as trainers to pass their knowledge on. Alongside the training, the project also included support for communications and creating a marketing plan for promoting golden embroidery, as well as the launch of a publication that details the history and importance of the craft.

“This training was a huge inspiration for me. “

About the project

The “Preservation and development of the traditional Montenegrin craft – gold embroidery” project is implemented by the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in cooperation with the Association of arts and crafts NIT. The project was supported by the Regional Programme for Local Democracy (ReLOaD), funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme.

The project aims to promote Montenegrin gold embroidery through the development of a marketing plan, improving the economic and social status of women through sharing gold embroidery skills, and popularising gold embroidery through cooperation with fashion designers.

“This training was a huge inspiration for me,” says Biserka, and with the skills she’d gained from the project, she decided to start a small business with the aim of presenting and providing access to these beautiful creations to more people. Designs that include golden embroidery are central to most of the products in her business, RB Ethno Fashion Hand Made, including designs of modern items for everyday use such as bags, scarves, or masks.

Apart from her production and sales activities, Biserka has also organised free workshops where she contributes to passing this skill on to other women from her community. “I believe that this tradition should live, so I am interested in as many young people as possible learning this technique,” she says.

Woman to the fore in fast evolving ICT services in Kosovo

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Closing the digital gender gap: more female representation in ICT is essential to this export-dominated sector.

The Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector in Kosovo is changing fast, mainly due to ever-increasing demand and the solutions that companies are providing. High levels of internet usage are yielding results for Kosovo, especially for its youth and emerging (ICT) businesses.

Eurostat reported in 2021 that 96% of the Kosovan population aged 16-74 had used the internet in the preceding three months, meaning that Kosovo ranks top in the region for internet use, and even few points higher than the European Union average. This context is a pre-condition for advancing the digital transformation of many services in society, but not necessarily only in Kosovo. Several companies based in and around the capital Pristina are providing ICT services for Europe and North America remotely. Indeed, some of them have no domestic clients at all, a feature reflected in a study by the ICT Association, STIKK, which confirms that over 90% of these services are exports.

“ICT was once considered a man’s job, but that is changing fast.”

Closing the digital gender gap

One effect of its welcomed growth is that it is offering jobs in an unemployment-stricken society, and that these jobs are stopping the emigration of Kosovo’s young demographic. The sector is also becoming more and more inclusive.

Women are finding themselves at the core of the sector, from technical positions in developing, to management and policy-making in ICT. One example is Iliriana Ibraj, who leads the business growth section of LinkPlus, one of the pioneer companies which has been exporting services for almost a decade.

“ICT was once considered a man’s job, but that is changing fast,” says Ibraj, who adds that she feels good being in the sector to be able to provide that different perspective. Women make up more than one third of her business’ total of 50 employees. “The increasing number of women in IT changes the mindset and stereotypes in the workplace but also in relation to clients where a perspective that doesn’t come from men can make a difference.”

The opportunities to change the ratio of girls participating in the sector start from education, where STEM (Science Technology Energy and Mathematics) subjects are experiencing a comeback as professions with employment potential. In addition to traditional universities, there are innovation centres, private initiatives, and international donors bringing STEM education to youth. Among them is the EU-funded project which supports the competitiveness of Kosovo’s ICT sector and has trained about 100 teachers and 1,000 students. The majority of the participants have been certified in web development, cyber security, and the programming languages required in the posts that ICT recruiters are looking to fill.

The other component where the project is working with the sector is to strengthen connections with companies based in the European Union.

“One of our strategies for growth comes from our belief that we can expand together with future partners within the EU.”

About the project

The overall objective of the EU Support for the Competitiveness of Kosovo’s ICT Sector project is to enhance the competitiveness of Kosovo’s digital and traditional businesses by supporting the expansion of Kosovo’s ICT sector, leading to growth and new job creation.

The project also aims to bridge the digital and business skills gap in a sustainable manner that meets the needs of the market and increases the competitiveness of Kosovo’s digital and t­­raditional businesses and to increase the export of Kosovan ICT businesses, and traditional businesses through the use of ICT.

ICT eliminates borders

Kosovo-based companies’ most popular export services include IT consulting, web design development, mobile solutions, and e-commerce. LinkPlus offers these services to clients operating within the EU but also to those across North American markets. The future looks bright for the company which is looking into cooperation with companies identified in recent business-to-business meetings.

“One of our strategies for growth comes from our belief that we can expand together with future partners within the EU,” she explains. “We’ve established initial contacts, with focus on sectors that we specialised in, and now we know more about the market and key players.” She says she is pleased with the initial introductions to present Kosovo’s investment potential, under which she includes Kosovo’s youth, climate for doing business, proximity to the EU, use of the euro as a currency, and the friendly relationships with clients which she sees as defining features of her society.

She said that she is also engaged in improving the position of women as a personal mission and uses the “DigiWomen” initiative, where she serves as a board member, as one platform joining up women in IT that can work as a role model. “The most important thing if we want to achieve gender equality is to lead by example in inspiring new generations: the change has to come from ourselves to make societies better.”

Old cheese recipe meets new clients

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Cheesemakers from Bosnia and Herzegovina increase their production and workforce with EU support.

When Tomislav Puđa was 20 years old, his father died, and Tomislav took up the family tradition of cheese making. The Puđa family specialise in the production of Livno cheese which is a hard cheese made from cow’s milk, sheep’s milk, or a mixture of the two. In the shape of a wheel, the cheese matures naturally under its rind for at least 60 days and has a robust flavour which can be slightly tangy. The recipe was introduced to the Livno region to match the taste of the imperial nobility in the time of Austro-Hungarian rule.

“My father always dreamed of our business growing bigger and having a small dairy. My brother and I decided to make this dream come true.”

From an artisanal cheese to a big company

Tomislav’s grandmother and grandfather had produced the cheese in small amounts in their cellar. In the 1970s, they decided to commercialise this product and sell it in the tourist region along the Adriatic coast. Although the quantities were not large, sales were good enough to make a living for the family. Tomislav’s father continued this tradition, and Tomislav helped.

“My father always dreamed of our business growing bigger and having a small dairy. My brother and I decided to make this dream come true,” says Tomislav.

The Puđa Eco Cheese dairy was founded in 2003, and has been growing ever since. Today, the dairy produces a dozen different types of cheese, and has won a number of international quality awards, most notably a gold medal from the International Cheese Fair held in Austria in 2014.

In 2019, guided by the idea of modernising the production process and strengthening the dairy’s long-term position on the domestic and foreign markets, the Puđas’ company responded to a public call for grants published within the EU4Business project, funded by the European Union and the German government and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the German development cooperation organisation, GIZ. Thanks to the EU4Business project, the dairy replaced obsolete cheese barrels with larger and modern ones, procured cutting and weighing machines and new shelves in the ripening facilities, and installed systems for maintaining the microclimate in the dairy. Construction work has also contributed to improving the overall quality of the production process in the dairy.

The total value of this investment amounted to over €380,000, of which the European Union provided nearly €150,000 in grants. The modern equipment has improved workflow and quality, reduced production costs, and contributed to increased productivity. “Modern technology has reduced errors to a minimum which is important to us in terms of quality continuity. One thing we saw right off is that the new equipment has better milk utilisation, meaning that today we get more cheese with the same amount of milk. As a result, our market competitiveness has now improved,” says Tomislav. The improvements achieved through the EU4Business project also mean new opportunities for expanding the production and marketing of cheese outside the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“People are our greatest asset. With the new machines, our workers have better working conditions and they can do their job faster and more easily.”

EU4Business is an EU project that aims to strengthen Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capacity for economic growth and employment by fostering competitiveness and innovation in selected sectors. has a budget of €16.1 million: €15 million funded by the European Union and €1.1 million by the Federal Republic of Germany.

EU4Business is part of the Local Development Strategies – Local Self-Government and Economic Development Programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Nearly 40 people work in the dairy, including seven people employed thanks to the EU4Business investment. New hires increased production levels, but also ensured better product quality control. As Tomislav says, “People are our greatest asset. With the new machines, our workers have better working conditions and they can do their job faster and more easily”.

YEAs in Albania meet Roma youth

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An event organised as part of International Roma Day included ten Young European Ambassadors and ten young people from the Roma community in Albania. With Tirana the European Youth Capital in 2022, the purpose of the meeting was to bring attention to Roma youth who are studying and contributing to the community in Albania.

 

Discussion focused on daily challenges and the way young Roma deal with them in Albania. Other topics included the work that has been done to improve the access of Roma people to basic rights, education and employment. It was concluded that although there have been improvements in terms of Roma integration and the protection of human rights, there is still a lot to do and the challenges remain real.

 

Finally, the participants discussed and agreed on future cooperation on the further empowerment of Roma youth in Albania.

YEA participate in debate on women empowerment in Belgrade

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The hybrid EU4Balkans mini festival took place in Belgrade at the end of March. The event was part of the cooperation activities organised by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy and the organisers of the Balkan Trafik festival. Through debate, cultural events, and meetings with Serbia’s Deputy Minister of Culture and Media, the event covered a range of important issues such as youth employment, inclusion and the development of rural areas in the Western Balkans.

 

The debate included the Young European Ambassadors (YEAs) and focused on women’s empowerment with participants emphasising that empowering women entails giving them the means and skills to thrive, to be independent and to change society.

 

EU4Balkans events aim to raise visibility on interregional cooperation as part of the IPA instrument for Pre-accession Assistance and the positive impact of EU Enlargement Policies.

Open call for EU Investigative Journalism Award

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The 2022 open call has been launched for the EU’s Investigative Journalism Award. Individuals or groups of journalists from Western Balkans and Turkey are eligible to apply in all journalism forms (print, online, radio and TV) published or broadcast in the media in each country in official, minority or international languages during 2021. The deadline for applications is 8 May 2022.  
Investigative stories related to freedom of expression, the rule of law, transparency, abuse of power and fundamental rights, corruption and organised crime are all eligible. The award fund in each country is €10,000, made up of a first prize of €5,000, a second prize of €3,000, and a third prize of €2,000.  
EU Investigative Journalism Awards in the Western Balkans and Turkey aim to celebrate and promote the outstanding achievements of investigative journalists as well as improving the visibility of quality journalism in the region. The awards are part of the ongoing project on Strengthening Quality News and Independent Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey, funded by the European Union.

Youth from Montenegro discuss European values with diplomats

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The Montenegro branch of the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) organised Youth Talks in Herceg Novi on 7 April. More than 30 young people aged between 15 and 25 years old took part in this event in cooperation with the French Embassy, and supported by the Herceg Novi Secretariat for Culture and Education. The goal was to bring young people from Montenegro closer to the founding ideas and values of the EU.
 
The meeting was attended by the French Ambassador to Montenegro, Christian Thimonier; the Deputy Head of Mission from the Czech Embassy, Petra Ali Dolakova; the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Slovenian Embassy, Goranka Krošelj; the Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Hungary, Mira Vuity; and Isabelle Thomas Delic from the European Integration Office. The young people attending got a chance to address the diplomats directly and to find out more about EU values and the opportunities the EU offers to young people.
 
In line with the priorities of the French Presidency of the Council of the EU, the French Embassy in Montenegro and RYCO in Montenegro plan to organise a series of Youth Talks in different parts of Montenegro. Future Youth Talks will take place in Berane, Pljevlja and Ulcinj.

€4.65 million to support entrepreneurship in Roma communities

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The European Investment Fund (EIF) has signed a guarantee agreement with REDI Economic Development S.A. that will make €4.65 million available to entrepreneurs operating in Roma communities in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia. This initiative, backed by the European Union and provided under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation, will ensure financing for more than 300 small businesses and the creation of at least 1,000 jobs.  
The funds will be available to microenterprises active in marginalised Roma communities, who will be able to take out loans of up to €25,000. On top of financial support, REDI will also provide technical assistance to entrepreneurs and support outreach to these Roma communities. This is the first EU financial instrument specifically aimed at Roma communities, ensuring inclusive employment opportunities.

EU support to transport in Serbia on display

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As a way of bringing the citizens of Niš closer to Serbia’s development priorities in the transport sector, an exhibition entitled “EU support for the transport sector in Serbia” is taking place in the EU Info Point premises in Niš. The exhibition showcases key investment projects such as road traffic reform, the introduction of modern and cost-effective infrastructure maintenance practices, and support for road safety.

 

The exhibition comes after the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a cooperation agreement with the city of Niš at the beginning of the year to finance the development of a sustainable public transport plan. The agreement creates conditions for the introduction of a more efficient transport system, as well as for the removal of freight traffic from the intercity railway corridor.

 

The initiative sits in the context of the European Commission’s €3.2 billion investment package to support 21 transport, digital, climate and energy connectivity projects in the Western Balkans. This is the first major package of projects under the EU’s ambitious Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans 2021-2027. It gives the citizens of Niš the opportunity to learn more about planned EU investments along road and rail Corridor 10, the modernisation of the Belgrade-Niš and Niš-Preševo-Dimitrovgrad railway lines, the long-announced Niš bypass and the works on the modernisation of inland waterways infrastructure in Serbia.

Take me by the hand

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With EU support, a Serbian start-up has developed a “smart glove” to increase independence for the visually-impaired.

Nikola Krstić is a young entrepreneur from Serbia whose invention has recently made big news in international markets. In less than two years, Nikola has gone from being a high school student to being CEO of a company. His invention is a “smart glove” through which blind and partially sighted people can orient themselves and recognise colours as well as banknotes and other objects, and through which guardians or friends will be able to follow their movements.

The story of this invention goes back to when Nikola was still in high school and entered a competition where young people were invited to develop and propose innovative business ideas. His entry was inspired by being visually impaired in one eye. “The idea itself was very spontaneous, coming from the fact that I had had this problem since birth,” says Nikola.

 “Developing the idea was just a start: we still had a long way to go”

Much-needed support

However, having an idea of what you want to do and basic knowledge on how to bring it to life is never enough in the world of start-ups. “Developing the idea was just a start: we still had a long way to go,” says Nikola. He and his team still needed support in terms of expertise and financing the further development of the product.

The potential of Nikola’s idea was recognised by the Innovation Fund in Serbia which, through its Early Development Programme with funds from the European Union, supported the development of this innovative product that Nikola named Anora.

Nikola explains that the funding has mainly been used to develop the hardware in the glove with which compact electronics provide all the functions necessary for a blind person’s everyday use. They were also able to invest more in the glove design so now they have one unobtrusive design made of premium material that can last for many years even with daily use. “So, the most important items – the hardware and the design of the glove – were made possible by the EU’s support,” he says.

The glove includes ten essential functions. These include detecting objects in space and returning vibration signals based on the proximity of the objects, like sort of a radar. In addition, it detects colours and banknotes and tells you the date and time. It also helps with orientation and if the person wearing it gets lost, the glove can send their location to friends or guardians.

“The support from the EU was crucial, as before that I was just a high-school-leaver with an idea, but now I am the leader of a company making an essential product that will be recognised globally.”

About the project

Serbia is one of the first countries in the region to adopt the so-called innovation imperative – the idea that successful participation in the world economy based on knowledge requires the ability to adapt and improve technological and research capacities through cooperation between the public and private sectors.

Active since 2011, its Innovation Fund is a pioneer in the institutional implementation of this imperative – primarily by increasing the capacity of start-ups and the resources available for their growth.  Since the Fund began in 2011, the European Union has given essential impetus to this financing of innovation in Serbia and the strengthening of links between the research and private sectors. So far, more than €17 million euros have been allocated from Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) funds for these programmes.

The Anoris Technology company led by Nikola has now made a deal for production and distribution of the Anora smart glove in the USA, and they are planning to open a branch of the company there very soon. Contact and coordination with partners in EU countries is also ongoing.

Nikola explains that their strategy is to provide this product to end users for free, with the costs covered through publicly responsible businesses, aid organisations or government institutions. In Serbia they are close to delivering over 5,000 gloves for free with the support of the Serbian government. According to Nikola, none of this would have happened without European support. “The support from the EU was crucial, as before that I was just a high-school-leaver with an idea, but now I am the leader of a company making an essential product that will be recognised globally,” he says.