The cooperation between the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy and Balkan Trafik continues: From 29th to the 31st of March, the mini Festival EU4BALKANS will be held in Belgrade, Serbia. This is the 1st of a series of events between the two to be organised in 2022.
- 25 March 2022
From 29th to the 31st of March, the hybrid mini festival EU4Balkans will take place in Serbia, Belgrade.
This event is part of the cooperation activities organized by Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy and 1001 valise, the organisers of the Balkan Trafik festival, to raise visibility about the regional cooperation under Interreg IPA both in Brussel and the Western Balkans.
The mini festival aims to cover a series of important matters such as youth employment, inclusion and development of rural areas in the Western Balkans through cultural events, meetings with the Vice-Minister at Ministry of Culture and Media of Serbia and a debate.
The debate will focus on women empowerment, which is key, not only in the EU but also in Western Balkans. Empowering women means giving them the means and skills to thrive, be independent and to change the society. Part of the priorities for the 2021-2027 EU Cohesion Policy is a more social and inclusive Europe and indeed the empowerment of women in societies is an important factor to achieve that goal. Various Interreg IPA programmes supported such projects such as FEMTERPRISE, Women Business HUB or Social entrepreneurship for women in rural areas, empowering them to determine their own business path, to influence social change and to improve inclusion. This important topic will be part of the debate on 31 March 2022 together with strong young voices from the Western Balkans to shed light on the subject.
The EU4Balkans events aim to raise visibility on the rationale of Interreg IPA cooperation and EU Enlargement Policies with all its positive impacts. Especially culture will serve as a driver for tolerance, mutual understanding and removing psychological borders towards what connects us. In this perspective, common values like inclusion, solidarity, multilateralism and global partnership will be embodied, to help the audience to overcome the often-wrong preconceptions of the Western Balkans. Young people will further enrich the events as change-makers of politics towards a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable society.
The next EU4Balkans events are already in the planning, taking place on 29 March to 1 April 2022 during the Balkans Trafik Festival in Brussels and Namur and on 16-18 May 2022 during the 7th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Strategy in Tirana.