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Author: WeBalkans

EU and BiH strengthen cooperation for disaster preparedness

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in News.

European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, visited Bosnia and Herzegovina to strengthen cooperation on disaster prevention, preparedness and response, at both national and regional level. His visit comes at a time when the country has reconfirmed its interest to join the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, which coordinates joint crisis response actions. The Commissioner also attended an EU-funded full-scale earthquake exercise response, with first responders taking part from Albania, Austria, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia and other international agencies.
 
Janez Lenarčič said, “Just a few days ago, Bosnia and Herzegovina was hit by two earthquakes. We cannot always predict when and where the next one will strike, but we can get better prepared. Therefore I fully support Bosnia and Herzegovina’s request to join the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. I am confident that becoming a member of our European civil protection framework will ensure that Bosnia and Herzegovina benefits from stronger crisis response whenever large scale crises strike. Together, we can protect and save lives.”
 
The Commissioner also met with Members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Minister of Security Selmo Cikotić, amongst others. During his visit, the Commissioner also announced €2.5 million in additional humanitarian funding to help Bosnia and Herzegovina cover the needs of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the country.

EIB to support the Western Balkans to address the current crisis

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At the end of April, the European Investment Bank (EIB) co-organised the eighth International Research Conference on Building Resilience in Times of Crisis: The Role of Policies. The conference was organised in cooperation with the National Bank of North Macedonia and held on the 30th anniversary of North Macedonia’s monetary sovereignty. The event dealt with current challenges, uncertainty arising from post-pandemic policy adjustments, and the policy response needed for tackling the expanding commodity and energy shocks triggered by the war in Ukraine. It illustrated the reinforced cooperation of the EIB – the lending arm of the EU – with its partners in North Macedonia and the support the Bank has been providing for the country’s economic stability and EU integration process for over 40 years.  
EIB Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova stressed that, as the EU’s bank, the EIB is ready to support the Western Balkans region in overcoming current challenges. “Besides financing the construction of more secure and diverse energy networks, we are helping the region to increase its resilience to climate change and develop new sustainable projects under the European Commission’s Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans. Last year, the EIB unlocked €257 million to support decarbonisation and the transition to the green economy in the region,” she said.  
The international conference welcomed over 40 participants including governors and board members of central banks, senior officials of international financial institutions and representatives of the regional and international academic community.

Youth Dialogue campaign in Montenegro

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The Youth Dialogue campaign which launched recently in Montenegro aims to raise awareness of what exactly youth participation means and why it is important and to enable young people to get involved in decision-making process on issues that concern them. The campaign aims to achieve this through direct conversation with young people and the organisations that represent them. The focus is on youth employment and discussion of topics of interest to young people, including guarantees for young people from EU Economic Investment Plan for the Western Balkans.

 

A video titled “#Say it loud, we hear you” has also been produced, calling on young people to take part in the dialogue, which they can do in person in their town or by filling out a questionnaire online.

 

The campaign is being jointly conducted by the EU Delegation to Montenegro, the EU Info Centre, and the Youth Network of Montenegro umbrella organisation as well as relevant ministries: the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports with the support of the Regional Cooperation Council, and a large number of youth organisations – the European Youth Card Association, the Montenegrin Association of Political Science Students, the Organisation of Montenegrin Students Abroad, Portal Makanje, Radio Krš, the Student Parliament, the Union of High School Students of Montenegro, and the Union of Young Entrepreneurs.

European Union Prize for Literature 2022 winner announced

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An international jury announced the 2022 winner and the five special mentions for the European Union Prize for Literature at the Paris Book Fair. Georgian writer Iva Pezuashvili won the prize for her book, A garbage chute. The jury also gave a special mention to writers from Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ireland, Spain, and Ukraine.

 

The 2022 selection displays a great variety of languages, countries, stories, and voices, illustrating EU and Creative Europe openness to cultural and linguistic diversity within and beyond the EU. The winner and nominated authors will get ongoing promotion at European level to help them to reach a wider and more international audience, as well as to connect with readers beyond their national and linguistic borders.

 

Since 2009, the European Union Prize for Literature has recognised emerging fiction writers from the European Union and beyond. The Prize celebrates outstanding new literary talents from all the 41 countries participating in Creative Europe.

EU extends additional €45 million in grants for Corridor Vc in BiH

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The European Union is stepping up its support for Corridor Vc, the key transport infrastructure project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with additional grant funding of €45.2 million. This brings the total amount of approved EU grants for Corridor Vc to more than half a billion euro. The grant funding agreement signed on 27 April will pay the ongoing construction works on two Poprikuše-Nemila motorway sections worth €36 million, with a €9.2 million investment grant for the Ivan Tunnel.

 

Corridor Vc is a pan-European transport project, and the 325-kilometre section in Bosnia and Herzegovina will cross the country from north to south, bring Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to the EU and eventually connecting the Adriatic port of Ploče in Croatia with the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

 

The motorway is co-financed from EU grant resources and by favourable loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The grant funds have been secured through the EU-supported Western Balkans Investment Framework which aims to improve the region’s connectivity by building new transport links and upgrading outdated transport and environmental infrastructure. The development of Corridor Vc is a strategic priority for Bosnia and Herzegovina and is expected to contribute to faster economic and social development.

On the trail of the endangered Balkan lynx

Written by WeBalkans on . Posted in Stories.

A team of North Macedonian journalists win prestigious EU award for their investigation into risks facing endangered lynx.

The Balkan lynx is a type of wild cat classified as a critically endangered species. Only around 45 of the species are now believed to roam in the region. Yet illegal poaching, landscape degradation and construction activities are posing grave threats to the region’s largest cat.

The Balkan lynx can be found in North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo. While hunting or harming any Balkan lynx is strictly forbidden by the law in all three countries, an investigation found that the situation is very different in practice. A team of journalists from Macedonian MOF radio concluded that the animal is in fact very poorly protected and in grave danger of extinction.

Their investigation lasted for several months and resulted in a story titled “Following the Balkan lynx’s footsteps – an investigative story in two parts”. The story paints a grim picture of the Balkan lynx’s situation of constant risk from illegal hunting. The investigative team found stuffed lynx on the walls of restaurants near the animal’s habitat, lynx kept in cages as an attraction, and suspicions of police officials involved in hunting. In addition, the investigation showed that apart from poaching threats, Balkan lynx are also endangered by illegal waste dumping, and construction activities such as roads and hydropower plants in and around natural or national parks.

”In our region we have great legislation on paper, but often this legislation is not implemented properly.”

Recognition of efforts

The journalist team that conducted and published the investigative story was made up of Bojan Shashevski, Daniel Evrosimoski, Emilija Petreska and Jasmina Jakimova. Jasmina explains that their inspiration came from wanting to tell a story on a rarely reported topic, and also to investigate whether the laws regarding the protection of nature and wildlife were being implemented properly. “In our region we have great legislation on paper, but often this legislation is not implemented properly,” she says.

The story was a great success in terms of feedback from readers and also won the EU Award for Investigative Journalism for North Macedonia in 2021. The award was given through the EU-funded project called “Strengthening Quality News and Independent Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey,” and the jury described the article as a product of outstanding research.

At the award ceremony, Emilija Petreska from Radio MOF said, “It is disappointing that even after more than a year since we published the story, the institutions have not reacted to the findings…. What kind of future do we have in mind if we continue to destroy eco-systems, to destroy the living environment of the Balkan lynx and the natural heritage we have, and – by that – destroy ourselves?”.

“The award was very important to us, not because of the money, but because of the recognition: it is a great feeling when your efforts are recognised”

About the project

The goal of the EU-funded project on “Strengthening Quality News and Independent Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey” is to enhance trust among citizens in the media and create a safe environment for journalists to produce independent news content, through training, mentoring, technical and financial support, and publishing. The project has run since 2019 in the EU candidate and potential candidate countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey.

Jasmina explains that being from a small media organisation, her team was surprised when they were told that they won the first prize. “The award was very important to us not because of the money, but because of recognition: it is a great feeling when your efforts are recognised,” she says.

The EU investigative journalism awards have the overall goal of celebrating and promoting the outstanding achievements of investigative journalists from the Western Balkan countries and Turkey, as well as improving the visibility of quality investigative journalism among the public in these countries.

Media integrity in the age of disinformation

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Marking the 30th anniversary of the start of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and at a time of Russian aggression against Ukraine, the European External Action Service has brought together leading international journalists and young journalists from the Western Balkans in cooperation with the EU Delegation to BiH to discuss media integrity in the age of disinformation.

 

A panel composed of some of the most reputable international journalists, who have made an inerasable mark on journalism in the last 30 years, joined the Sarajevo discussion. They connected from multiple cities across Europe: Christiane Amanpour (CNN) and Rémy Ourdan (Le Monde) from Ukraine, Javier Espinosa (El Mundo) from Madrid, Roger Cohen (The New York Times) from Paris, and Ed Vulliamy (The Guardian and Observer) from London, while Aida Čerkez (former Associated Press correspondent from BiH) and Nadina Maličbegović (Al Jazeera Balkans) were in Sarajevo together with Filip Lukić (N1 Belgrade) who moderated the discussion.

 

Participants discussed the challenges of war reporting, the role of new technologies, ethics and professionalism, disinformation, media manipulation and the safety of journalists. Information manipulation and disinformation are also a challenge in times of peace, where they aim to antagonise and polarise societies, deepen tensions, deceive the public and ultimately destabilise societies and democracy.

 

Twenty young journalists from the Western Balkans region travelled to Sarajevo to participate in this discussion, as a part of a broader study visit aiming to give them a chance to learn from top experts in the profession, but also from each other. This project is a part of the efforts of the EEAS Stratcom Western Balkans Task Force to raise awareness of – and build resilience to – information manipulation and disinformation, in order to support the capacity of Western Balkan societies to deal with the disinformation challenge. Investing in media freedom and professional journalism is a significant part of addressing disinformation, as it helps building well-informed societies and stronger democracies.

 

The event took place in Sarajevo and online on 7 April. The session was streamed globally and received significant attention in local and regional media, with several TV stations broadcasting it live.

WBF signs contracts with the winners of the first regional grant scheme

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In the presence of more than 100 distinguished guests, the Western Balkans Fund (WBF) welcomed the 30 winners of the First Regional Grant Scheme co-funded by the European Union. The selected proposals are funded through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance by the “Support to the promotion of Civil Society regional actions in the Western Balkans” project.

 

H.E. Alexis Hupin, Chargé d’Affaires at the European Union Delegation to Albania, spoke on behalf of the European Union. He said, “The EU is actually a project that started based on an idea of good neighbourly relations. If we go fast forward to EU 2022, the turn of events next door, the war in Ukraine, has once more shed light on the importance of good neighbourly relations, respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

 

The application process for the first co-funded call for proposals was launched on 8 November 2021 and 207 projects were submitted including almost 750 stakeholders. The evaluation process was conducted in the first months of this year with the help of external experts. The 30 winning projects target flagship issues such as the green and digital economy, human rights, gender equality, education, research, and cultural cooperation.

 

The Western Balkans Fund is an international organisation established in 2017 by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Western Balkans region. Prior to the co-funded grant scheme, the WBF launched three other successful calls for proposals, funding 68 projects with a total of 10,000 direct beneficiaries.

Global Cultural Relations Programme participants announced

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The Cultural Relations Platform has announced the participants in the Global Cultural Relations Programme (GCRP) 2022. The 40 cultural changemakers and innovators selected for the Global Cultural Relations Programme 2022 were chosen from over 2,000 applications to take part in the Cultural Relations Platform’s flagship training programme for creative professionals from around the world. They span 40 nationalities, including from the Western Balkans, and numerous sectors – including the performing arts, music, audio visual, cultural heritage and the visual arts.

 

As part of the GCRP programme, from 10-13 May the participants will have an opportunity to network, share experiences and ideas, build their skills in international cultural relations and develop a collaborative international cultural project.

 

The Cultural Relations Platform is an EU-funded project that connects cultural practitioners worldwide for dialogue, exchange and co-operation. It also provides expertise to the European Union in the field of international cultural relations.

TAIEX supports local governments in Montenegro in the fight against marine pollution

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According to the UN environment programme, the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute. This harms not only the marine ecosystem, but also humans through microplastics in the food chain.

 

On 10-11 April, the European Commission’s Technical Assistance and Information Exchange (TAIEX) instrument and the Municipality of Budva organised a workshop on plastic waste management for all municipalities on the Montenegrin coast. Representatives of central institutions and the NGO sector also joined the event to exchange ideas with EU experts from Slovenia and Belgium.

 

Participants agreed that more incentives for recycling should be introduced to counter the problem in the Adriatic. They also exchanged ideas on how to motivate citizens to reduce the use of disposable plastic.

 

Christof Delatter, Head of the Strategy and Policy Department at the Flanders Waste Management Agency, demonstrated how Belgium achieved a reduction in household waste production through a mix of legislative incentives and communication campaigns. Štefan Trdan from the Water Institute of Slovenia explained the importance of collecting data related to waste management and showed how municipalities can make use of it in communication actions oriented towards lasting and sustainable results.

 

The event in Budva launched the second phase of the TAIEX initiative offering strategic support to local authorities in the Western Balkans and working directly with both local and regional authorities to share best EU public policy practices. More local workshops and expert missions, also on environmental topics, will be taking place soon.