The 90 Interreg programmes across European borders have promoted the work they do for and with young people. For 30 years, Interreg’s mission has been to bring people together by boosting cooperation actions between regions in Member States, and also with partner countries at the external borders of the European Union. The younger generation benefits from such cooperation actions and should become a key actor of funded projects for a greener, more innovative, more attractive and more accessible place to live in.
Among the many youth initiatives held throughout the year, the Youth4Cooperation Roadshow organised in Central Macedonia region by Interact brought together, over two days, Members of the European Parliament, European Commission representatives, and young beneficiaries of Interreg projects operating in the cross-border area.
The adventure started in Serrès, with a visit to the project EmploYouth, a skills booster for young entrepreneurs financed by the IPA CBC Greece – Republic of North Macedonia Programme. The partnership between six Greek and North Macedonian institutions, namely the Serrès Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the University of Western Macedonia, the Chamber of Pella, the Bitola Faculty of Information and Communication, and the Foundation for Sustainable Economic Development Preda Plus, helped 60 young Greek people and 80 young North Macedonian entrepreneurs develop their business models and to launch their own company.
The aims of the EmploYouth project are especially relevant since the cross-border region remains among the most severely hit by youth unemployment in Europe, with more than 40% of its young people out of the job market. The region suffers from a significant brain drain, as educated young people look for jobs elsewhere in Europe[1].
Therefore, the EmploYouth project aims to build a cross-border community of young entrepreneurs between Greece and North Macedonia.
“The EmploYouth project gave me the courage to start my own project.” says Michalis Tzacheilis, a former Interreg Volunteer Youth and beneficiary of the project (Greece).
“The collaboration with Greek partners was an eye-opener for our start-ups to think from the very beginning: wider markets and potential investors, especially when start-ups had the opportunity to pitch their idea in front of a Venture Capital fund from Athens.” adds Marijana Milevska, from Preda Plus (North Macedonia).
The EmploYouth project is one of the examples of an Interreg IPA programme that brings an EU country and its neighbour together on an equal footing to find common solutions for young people who struggle to find jobs in their homeland.
The roadshow’s next stop brought us to the TRANS-EDU-NET project, funded by the Interreg Transnational Balkan-Mediterranean programme. By gathering partners from Bulgaria, Greece, Albania and North Macedonia, this project tackles youth unemployment in the tourism sector, one of the most active in the transnational area. TRANS-EDU-NET reached out to 300 000 young people in total by organising cross-border gatherings, job fairs, delivering online training and certificates for students who followed the classes.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the project cooperated with the Thessaloniki Vocational Training Institute, allowing students to continue learning online about all aspects of tourism. The project will be further developed under the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme in the 2021-2027 period.
Interreg InfoBox: In the 2014-2020 period, 160 Interreg projects helped the young generation to cope with the extreme effects of the economic and financial crisis of the late 2000s. In total, EUR 116 million was devoted to youth employability. Read more about Interreg and youth employability projects in the study here.
On the roads around Thessaloniki, we discover the mixture of cultures and history between Greece and Bulgaria. The INTERREG Greece-Bulgaria Programme presented the Youth Mobilisation, Cultural Heritage and Athletic YMC(H)A project. The project contributes to renovating sporting facilities and gives access, on the same premises, to the Basketball museum. The sport site offers community building opportunities for families and basketball lovers, and children can use digital tools to learn about the history of basketball in Greece and the sports culture in the Greek-Bulgarian region. The project has thus far attracted 174 schools, including almost 6 500 students and 3 500 visitors, including politicians and sports players. It raises awareness of the need to preserve cultural traditions and encourages tourism in the cross-border area. To continue its activities and increase exchanges between young Bulgarians and Greeks, the project will benefit from Erasmus funding in future.
Interreg InfoBox: Culture represents 4.2 % of total European GDP and Interreg projects contribute to boosting the sector. As stated in the e-book Connecting culture, connected citizens Interreg brings to cultural heritage a cross-sectoral approach that impacts competitiveness and innovation, skills, education and social inclusion, resource efficiency and environmental protection. Additionally, the four EU Macro-Regional Strategies provide structured investment frameworks and optimise this cooperation considerably. In the 2021-2027 period, more than half of all Interreg programmes will finance cultural projects.
Terminus, tout le monde descend ! Please mind the gap between the train and the platform!
Here comes the end of the Youth4Cooperation Roadshow, with the ZeroWasteBSB project funded under the ENI CBC Black Sea Basin Programme, where we could appreciate the determination of young people to fight environmental pollution. This project brought together organisations from Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, and Bulgaria, and aims to decrease marine pollution due to waste production, especially plastic. Almost 15 young people aged between 13 and 15 shared their experience about how we can reach the target of zero waste in our daily lives. For them, five keywords can lead Europe to depollute the environment and reduce marine litter: Refuse (to buy things you don’t really need), Reduce (the use of products), Reuse (what you already have), Recycle (use products to be recycled), and Rot (compost your organic waste).
If the EU Green Deal established a clear roadmap to make the European continent greener, nothing prevents individual actions to accelerate the process. The Zero Waste project has targeted young people as ambassadors and actors to make the EU greener and to make adults more responsible in their daily life.
Interreg InfoBox: Greening cooperation will be one of the main objectives of Interreg programmes for the 2021-2027 period. All Interreg programmes will finance projects related to sustainable tourism, energy savings, protection of biodiversity and nature, waste management and depollution of the sea.
This rejuvenating experience resulted in very positive feedback from participants, who particularly appreciated the enthusiasm of young people, and how the large diversity of European cooperation projects helps them to build their future.
[1] Finding Solutions to Youth Unemployment in North Macedonia, The World Bank, July 2019
