The municipalities of Zvečan/Zveçan and Zubin Potok were the focus of today’s visit to northern Kosovo by EU Ambassador Szunyog. He visited various projects and other sites in the north and met with local authorities. Ambassador Szunyog discussed the region’s tourism potential, support to entrepreneurs, and green economic development with the Mayor of Zubin Potok, Srđan Vulović.
The two officials discussed the current political and security situation, and the significance of the Gazivode/Ujmani lake for the municipality and Kosovo as a whole. Ambassador Szunyog commended the efforts of local authorities in preserving inter-community cooperation and in providing a regional safe house for victims of domestic violence.
In Zvečan/Zveçan the EU Ambassador also visited the regional Savina Stena landfill, funded by the EU with €5 million. The landfill is to be completed in early 2021, and with significant improvements to waste management, the environment and citizens’ health it will serve the people of four northern Kosovan municipalities – Leposavić/Leposaviq, North Mitrovica, Zvečan/Zveçan and Zubin Potok. The landfill has a surface area of 26,000m2and a capacity of 300,000m3.
The EU is also financing the purchase of eight waste collection trucks and over 880 waste containers, worth a total of €1 million, for all four municipalities. In addition, the EU will soon launch a new project constructing waste collection points. The total value of all EU support in this sector in northern Kosovo is €7.5 million.
The 16 Days of Activism Global Campaign against Gender-Based Violence was launched in Gjakova/Ðakovica today by Ambassador Tomáš Szunyog, the EU Special Representative / Head of the EU Office in Kosovo. Ambassador Szunyog and Ardian Gjini, Mayor of Gjakova/Ðakovica municipality, marked the beginning of the campaign in a ceremony at the municipal offices.
At the launch ceremony, Ambassador Szunyog said that: “Survivors must be at the centre of the policies. They need to feel that they are not alone. Domestic and gender-based violence affects the whole society, so all of us should be involved in eliminating it. The EU remains committed to supporting Kosovo in ending violence against women, even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Ambassador Szunyog also visited the shelter for survivors of gender-based violence and joined the lighting up in orange of the Terzi and Tabak bridges. He was accompanied by Ulrika Richardson, UN Development Coordinator; Vlora Tuzi Nushi, Head of UN Women; and Maria Suokko, the United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative.
This year, the traditional UN campaign on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women started amid reports that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased domestic violence across the world. COVID-19 triggered this year’s global theme “Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!”.
EU4AGRIis a four-year (2020-2024) European Union project valued at BAM 20.25 million that aims to modernise the agri-food sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project is jointly implemented and co-financed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in BiH and the Czech Development Agency.
The latest EU4AGRI call is open to individuals, entrepreneurs, cooperatives and companies actively engaged in primary agricultural production in sectors such as milk production, meat production, cereal farming, fruit cultivation (including wine and olive growing), vegetable cultivation and egg production.
The aim of the call is to support the achievement of sustainable agriculture and introduction of good practices, as well as the creation of new jobs – and the retention of existing ones. The total available funds for this public call amount to BAM 3.5 million. Each applicant can submit an application for funds between BAM 30,000 and BAM 200,000. For every investment, the applicant must secure co-financing of between 20% and 35% of the total value of the proposed investment. The deadline for submission of applications is 15.00 on 15 February 2021.
In the past 15 years, educational reforms have been implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a focus on strengthening higher, general, vocational and adult education. However, several surveys – as well as the latest report of the European Commission – point to a large disparity between the knowledge and skills of jobseekers coming out of the education system, and the needs of the labour market.
Within the “Education for Employment” project launched today, the European Union is providing €2.6 million to assist BiH authorities in improving capacity and structures for planning the educational process and the quality of educational outcomes. The project will address existing shortcomings, given the mismatch between education and training systems and the needs of the labour market. The project will provide this support through the development of modern lifelong career guidance services, as well as better higher education and vocational education and training.
“On behalf of the European Union, I am very glad to kick off this project which will address very relevant areas of education in BiH, in particular the reform of teacher training and the development of a model for monitoring of progress of reform processes based on external assessments of education systems through international tests of students such as PISA, PIRLS, and TIMMS,” said Gianluca Vannini,Head of the Operations Section for Social Development, Civil Society and Cross-Border Cooperation in the EU Delegation to BiH.
The “Education for Employment” project will help strengthen staff capacity in the Ministry of Education, agencies, pedagogical institutes and schools so they will be able to make regular assessments of the situation in the education sector and use the results of this assessment for research and the planning of educational policies. This will further enable experts in the education sector to analyse and transform the results of external testing of students conducted both nationally and internationally.
In addition, the project will address the further development of entrepreneurial competencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, initiating a policy discussion, as well as offering pilot activities in the field of digital competencies. It will last for 30 months and is extremely important both for strengthening the education system and for economic development in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The EU-funded National Resource Centre for Civil Society in Albania gathered more than 100 representatives from Albanian civil society organisations online to discuss the challenges they are facing. The conference brought together organisations, networks and civil society activists, as well as representatives of state institutions, donors and international organisations.
The EU Ambassador to Albania, Luigi Soreca, was also part of the conference. In his opening remarks he stressed that civil society involvement in policy-making is essential but currently unsatisfactory in Albania, advising that: “Public authorities should ensure the participation of civil society in reform processes. Important efforts are still needed to have effective consultation processes with civil society before legislation is adopted. Consultations that are not done consistently and coherently may compromise the quality of new laws and future steps in the accession process.”
The main issues discussed at the conference related to the development of the sector and its role in policy-making, in the strengthening of democracy and in the country’s socio-economic development.
The National Resource Centre for Civil Society in Albania is an EU-funded platform of information and service provision which contributes to the strengthening of civil society’s capacities to be more effective, transparent, accountable and independent actors. It supports the creation of an enabling environment for civil society, participatory democracy and Albania’s process of integration into the European Union. The initiative is financed by the European Union and is implemented by Partners Albania in partnership with the Albanian Center for Population and Development (ACPD) and the European Movement in Albania (EMA).
26 November 2020 A year ago, Albania was hit by a deadly earthquake which caused significant casualties as well as widespread damage to public and private property. Affected sites included educational facilities and cultural heritage monuments.
The European Commission has pledged €115 million in grants to support reconstruction through the EU4Schools and the EU4Culture programmes. Works under both programmes are ongoing.
Earlier this week, EU Ambassador Luigi Soreca visited two of the schools currently under repair and reconstruction in Durrës and Kruja. He said: “Schools are the real symbol of recovery for society, and offer a new beginning for the children affected by the destruction of their schools. The work sites I visited are the embodiment of the solid ties of solidarity between the citizens of the EU and Albania. Since day one, the European Union has continuously been on the frontline of helping Albania.”
The EU4Schools programme is providing €75 million to rebuild and repair 58 educational facilities in the 11 earthquake-affected municipalities through the United Nations Development Programme. Twenty thousand school and kindergarten children, as well as more than 200,000 community members, will benefit from the programme.
The Albanian economy is heavily dependent on tourism, which has faced a double disaster this year with the damage of the country’s cultural heritage sites and the unprecedented COVID-19 global pandemic. The EU4Culture project, agreed in October, seeks to address this situation by revitalising earthquake-affected cultural heritage sites in Albania with a focus on boosting tourism and local economic development. The EU4Culture provides €40 million for the restoration of cultural heritage sites through the United Nations Office for Project Services.
The reconstruction work for both programmes combines the “Build Back Better” and “Build Better Together” approaches for every community — bringing together local governments, communities and public institutions in designing and implementing rapid recovery activities through transparent systems, while at the same time promoting ownership and the sustainability of the investment.
Currently, 40% of all those employed in the Western Balkans are women, but more than 23% of them hold insecure jobs. Only 27.5% of business owners in the Western Balkans are women, and just 14.2% of companies’ top managers are female. The share of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) occupations is 14% due to gender stereotypes, pay gaps and gender bias that prevent many girls in the region from choosing an education in STEM fields.
The Regional Cooperation Council and UNDP have therefore launched the Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative. The main goal of this initiative is to encourage reforms that will foster women’s participation and leadership in the economy, reducing gender gaps and promoting further economic development of the region. More specifically, the initiative will establish a Regional Network of Women in STEM, prepare an action plan to advance women’s involvement in STEM fields, facilitate regional dialogue leading to women’s economic empowerment initiatives, and increase knowledge and awareness about women’s active role in society, including their contribution to economic growth and sustainable development.
The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) is co-funded by the European Union.
A woman from Rožaje in Montenegro blends tradition, fashion and art to start a new business.
Igbala Murić, 49, lives in the small border town of Rožaje in Montenegro. From a young age she enjoyed sewing traditional textiles like bedding, clothes, and napkins. As a high school student she had already decided that she would build a professional life based on these skills. In agreement with her parents, she registered at a professional high school for textile production.
Later in life she worked as a tailor in companies in Montenegro and Turkey, but this work did not include traditional crafts. “I missed working on our traditional clothes and other textiles. Our traditional clothing is unique and beautiful, and it is also our cultural heritage,” she says.
All along, Igbala wanted to do something about the preservation of this traditional heritage in textiles. Her idea was to start her own business that would specialise in the production of her culture’s traditional clothing. But for this, she needed financial support and to know how to start and manage a business. Years passed, but she was not able to initiate anything sustainable.
“Our traditional clothing is unique and beautiful, and our cultural heritage”Finding the right support
In 2019 Igbala heard about the ‘Craftsman’ project funded as part of the IPA CBC Programme Serbia – Montenegro 2014 – 2020, financed by the European Union. The project that provided support for women and young people in the Rožaje region in Montenegro and Sjenica region in Seribia. She registered a company and applied for support. She participated in a training programme for business management, received a new sewing machine from the project, and entered the world of entrepreneurship. The project provided support to more than 90 individuals like Igbala by involving them in this training and a mentoring programme.
As a result of the support, she has increased production since the beginning of this year and had been planning to employ other women until plans got interrupted by the pandemic. “I was working mainly on handicrafts. The support from the project provided me with an opportunity to expand my business, increase production, and also sell in other parts of Montenegro,” she says.
“The support from the project provided me with an opportunity to expand my business, increase production, and also sell in other parts of Montenegro”
Amela Kovačević Kalender, the project manager, says: ‘The municipality of Rožaje is proud to support local economic development, with a strong focus on job creation and entrepreneurship. We aim to encourage people to pursue their ideas and to show that even small initiatives can have a significant impact on the local economy.’
The implementing partners of the project are the Municipality of Rožaje and the Municipality of Sjenica, in cooperation with the two vocational schools from these cities. The ‘Craftsman’ project was funded as part of the IPA CBC Programme Serbia – Montenegro 2014 – 2020, financed by the European Union.
Helping traditional businesses
Micro, small and medium enterprises play a crucial role in employing a diverse workforce and income generation for local communities in both Montenegro and Serbia. Under the leadership of local authorities, the project has supported collaboration amongst secondary vocational schools from target municipalities to renew interest in traditional businesses like handcrafts.
The project has generated new jobs for vulnerable parts of the population, including youth and women, by providing the help they need in terms of business knowledge, start-up support, training and mentoring. Additionally, the project has provided specialised craft tools to secondary schools in Rožaje and nearby Sjenica in Serbia, to be used by students and other potential entrepreneurs.
A fashion designer from North Macedonia reflects punk philosophy in her designs
Teodora began listening to punk music when she was 14. “Before that I was an ordinary child, I had Barbie dolls and my room was painted pink. Everything was super girly,” she says, remembering the kinds of clothes she would sew for her Barbies. She explains that she grew up with a lot of love and care from her parents in an almost ideal childhood. But as a teenager she became rebellious.
How to find punk style in Skopje?
As Teodora moved from pink to punk, she wanted to dress accordingly. However, her hometown – Skopje – did not have any shops that sold punk-style clothes. She explains, “I knew some kids whose parents had been into punk when they were young so they would wear their parents’ old clothes. I was not in that position so I started to design and sew my own punk clothes.”
Back then Teodora didn’t know that this would be the beginning of her own fashion brand and her career in design. It was later that she decided to study fashion design and chose to go to London where punk culture had begun. While she was there, she developed her designs. “Punk, to me, has always been about just letting go of what society thinks and being free,” she says, and Teodora’s creations reflect that by using unconventional materials and mixing gender norms.
“I knew some kids whose parents had been into punk when they were young so they would wear their parents’ old clothes. I was not in that position so I started to design and sew my own punk clothes.”
When she graduated from Middlesex University in London, Teodora began looking for ways to get into the fashion market by promoting and selling her own brand. She knew that having a unique brand may be a blessing, but it also comes with challenges — it was a struggle to find a place in the market alongside mainstream brands. She was only 21 and opportunities were scarce but Fashion Weekend Skopje, an NGO from her hometown, invited her to showcase her work at Riga Fashion Week and later at Lisbon Fashion Week.
“I could not believe that this was happening! Sveta from Fashion Weekend Skopje had heard that I had graduated, and had my graduation collection ready. She called me and said that I would be a good candidate to represent North Macedonia in these shows. I was thrilled,” Teodora smiles.
Along with partners from Belgium, France, Germany, Latvia, and Portugal, Fashion Weekend Skopje had launched a project called United Fashion, funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. The project helps young designers promote their work, learn new skills in marketing fashion and make connections with colleagues and fashion companies across Europe.
Learning the basics
Teodora says she saw this as a great opportunity to learn the practicalities of the fashion industry. “I wanted to learn how you prepare for a fashion show, how you do hair and make-up or how models rehearse.”
In both Lisbon and Riga, Teodora also participated in workshops and seminars with guest speakers discussing production and collaboration opportunities, sustainability of brands, and marketing strategies. Nevertheless, she realises that it was “the mingling that we had in cocktail parties where I got to chat with particular manufacturers and understand how the industry really works” that helped her most.
“Punk, to me, has always been about just letting go of what society thinks and being free”
Making punk big
Teodora currently works as a graduate academic assistant at Middlesex University. She is still actively promoting her brand, using all that she has learned, and aims to become a designer who is well-known in Europe and beyond. “I have this feeling that I can do something really big. It sounds like a cliché, but I firmly believe that one day I am going to be big,” she says.
A young entrepreneur from Kosovo grows his rural tourism company with the support of the European Union
Nol Krasniqi is a member of the Kosovo rock climbing team, an environmental activist and a mountain tour guide. He lives in the city of Peja in Kosovo, which is surrounded by the Accursed Mountains – one of the most spectacular mountain ranges in the Western Balkans. Gazing up at the limestone crags you can easily see why these mountains are an attraction for many tourists. Nol has been working as a solo mountain tour guide since he was 18 years old, and in 2014, he decided to turn this part-time job into a full-time business, along with his business partner Virtyt.
A better offer
Nol explains that they began thinking about the mountain tourism business when the numbers of visitors to the city and the surrounding mountains increased, and the first tour operators entered the market. “They were offering very few tour options. We thought that we could offer something better, and we launched the company,” he says. Six years later, Balkan Natural Adventure has become an important competitor in the mountain tourism sector not only in Kosovo, but also in neighbouring Albania and Montenegro.
“The support provided by the European Union was an important milestone for the sustainability of our company”New market strategy
The company has already hosted over 700 tourist groups. However, despite this success they have also had struggles and challenges. From the very beginning tourist transport was a big problem because of the cost and reliability of the service. Initially they subcontracted small buses and taxis depending on the number of visitors in the group. But this was only a short-term solution.
“Our main visitor group structure is around eight people. The market did not offer the best solutions for this size of group: we often had to rent minibuses with 20 seats or rent two cars. It was not financially viable,” says Nol. In addition, the car rental companies were not always reliable, and this added to the challenge. “We were concentrating on mountain tourism and then we saw that cultural tours were increasing — we needed to diversify.”
Three years ago, Nol’s business partner, Virtyt, saw an open call launched by the European Union on social media for support to companies, including those working in tourism. As Balkan Natural Adventure needed the support they decided to apply. They asked for help with international advertising, research to develop cultural tours and purchasing a van with eight passenger seats to solve their transport difficulties. Their proposal was approved, and they were co-financed for all their needs by the European Union. “The support provided by the European Union was an important milestone for the sustainability of our company. Apart from increasing the reliability and volume of our services, we hired more people. Now we have three full-time people working in the sales and administration department and we have 15 part-time personnel working as tour guides and drivers,” says Nol.
He describes their current team as professional and explains that it includes guides from Albania and Montenegro. “Initially, we had problems finding people dedicated to guiding. However, after we had some good examples of how guides earned a year’s salary in four months, things started to change.”
If it wasn’t for the COVID-19 pandemic, Balkan Natural Adventure would have hosted 500 tourist groups this year. This would have been important growth. Despite the pandemic, Nol and his partner project a bright future for their company: over the next ten years, they expect to add 40 part-time tour guides and drivers and increase their full time staff to ten people
“More and more people are looking to sustainable tourism as their future”
But there are still other types of challenges ahead. The main ones are illegal construction in the mountains, hydropower plants and air pollution. Nol is optimistic though. “More and more people are looking to sustainable tourism as their future,” he says.
“After our advertising campaign we had more bookings for 2020 than we had over the last three years combined. COVID played its part but fortunately most clients postponed: they did not cancel, so our investment was not lost,” stresses Nol.
