Emina Balota

“My name is Emina, I was born in Luxembourg, but grew up in Montenegro. I hold a Bachelor Degree of Political Science – Department of International Relations at the University of Montenegro. Currently, I am on the last year of my master studies as a scholarship holder of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree Programme called European Politics and Society. Within the programme, I had the opportunity to study at three prestigious European universities – Charles University, Leiden University, and Jagiellonian University. In 2021, during Bachelor studies, I was granted an Erasmus+ scholarship for a student exchange at the Charles University in Prague. Besides pursuing formal education, I have been active in various non-formal activities, being involved in youth activities and youth NGOs and networks. Besides being a Young European Ambassador, I also became a No Hate Speech Ambassador of the Council of Europe, as part of its Block the Hatred – Share the Love campaign. I am committed to promoting peace, reconciliation, EU values, human rights and European integration of the Western Balkans. I was chosen to be one of the 30 Youth Ambassadors for Reconciliation from the Western Balkans in the project “”Supporting Democratization and Reconciliation Process in the Western Balkans”” implemented by Globsec Think Thank. Back in 2018, as an 18-year-old high school student, I was a representative of Montenegro in a public debate “EU enlargement and the Western Balkans”, held at the European Commission. I completed courses in journalism and first-aid training, School of Democracy implemented by Center for Civic Education, participated in the ERASMUS+ youth exchange program in Slovenia and been involved in many trainings, events and projects on various topics such as social inclusion, cross-sectoral youth policy, leadership, gender equality, climate change, European values, prejudices and stereotypes in our community, the role of young people in the prevention of violent radicalism and extremism, etc.”