On 31 August 2026, from 11:00 to 15:00, the Cantina Pupa winery in Berat hosted “The future grows here,” an EU beneficiary event coordinated by journalist and influencer Florian Gjini. Set in a working agricultural business, the gathering brought together young people, entrepreneurs, media representatives, YEAs and other influential voices for a practical conversation about staying, investing and building a career in Albania. Organizers framed the day around one central question: how can young people build their future in Albania, and what can the European Union offer to support that choice?
Adding to the energy of the day, 12 Albanian influencers joined the conversation, helping extend the event’s message well beyond the winery walls. With their reach among young audiences, they were well placed to share what they saw and heard with thousands of followers, turning a local dialogue into a national conversation. The discussion itself put agriculture, agrotourism, the food industry and local products in the spotlight as sectors with real potential for job creation and youth entrepreneurship, increasingly shaped by technology, innovation, digitalization and new business models.
European integration was presented as a further source of opportunity, bringing new avenues for financing, capacity building, market access, knowledge exchange and alignment with European standards. Surrounded by the vines of Cantina Pupa, a business that shows what local enterprise can achieve, young people got a real sense of what is possible at home. If there was one takeaway from the day, it was a simple one: building a future in Albania is a realistic choice, and young people making it, can thrive with the EU support.
