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.