3rd Europe-Western Balkans Youth Meeting: Using the EU youth programmes as vehicles for positive societal change

This 3rd Europe-Western Balkans Youth Meeting is a follow up to the first two Europe – Western Balkans Youth Meetings held in 2016 and 2018. The overall aim of this Meeting is to continue the dialogue between youth workers and other stakeholders in the youth field from the Western Balkan region and other European countries about the role of European and cross-border cooperation and the European youth programmes (especially Erasmus+: Youth in Action and the European Solidarity Corps) in stimulating positive societal change, supporting the development of youth work and youth policy and the European integration process.

This year's Meeting takes place during the last year of the current Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes. Attention will therefore be given to taking stock of achievements of past EU – WB cooperation projects and reflecting on what is needed to increase impact and encourage ways forward, in particular under the new generation of Erasmus+, youth field, and the European Solidarity Corps after 2020.

Rather than formulating recommendations for political processes that we cannot really influence, the meeting should be looking at what youth work practitioners, policy makers and the various other stakeholders involved, including the relevant support structures and institutions, could do to encourage further developments.

The network of National Agencies for Erasmus+: Youth in Action and the European Solidarity Corps has agreed on the need to reinforce communication between stakeholders (National Agencies, regional SALTOs, European Commission and external stakeholders) aiming to develop a coherent strategic approach for cooperation with Partner regions within the programmes. Outcomes of the discussions during the 3rd Europe – Western Balkans Meeting could be a concrete contribution to this effort of developing a strategy for the cooperation with the Western Balkan region.

The concrete objectives of the 3rd EU - Western Balkans Youth Meeting are:

• Taking stock and celebrating the cooperation and participation of the Western Balkans in the EU youth programmes (Erasmus+ and ESC)
• Critical review of the opportunities for cooperation with the Western Balkans offered by the new EU youth programmes
• Exploring the linkage between the EU youth programmes and the further development of youth work, youth policy and research
• Exploring the issues that are relevant for young people and that therefore could be tackled in transnational cooperation projects (connected to 11 youth goals of the EU Youth Strategy and see how they are relevant for the WB)
• Providing space for contributing to the process of designing future cooperation with neighbouring partner countries (in the new EU youth programmes)
• Offering space and time for quality networking in the EU – Western Balkans context

Participants

We are looking for participants coming from Erasmus+ Programme countries and from Partner countries in the Western Balkans, in particular:

• Youth workers, project managers, trainers, practitioners working with young people, who have used and further plan to use the European youth programmes in their work
• Youth researchers and other professionals from the formal, informal, non-formal education sectors, connected to the Programmes
• Regional or local level decision makers with some kind of transnational cooperation experience
• Representatives of institutions supporting regional and / European cooperation in the youth work field with/in the WB region

References

Discussions during the Meeting will refer to current developments related to the situation of youth work, youth policy and research (especially in the Western Balkan region), European youth work priorities and frameworks, the EU youth programmes as well as the EU accession process of the Western Balkan region.

• Cooperation with neighbouring partner countries within the European youth programmes: recommendations for the new programmes 2021 – 2027 (Network of National Agencies in charge of the youth field of the Erasmus+ programme and the European Solidarity Corps, October 2019)
• Implementation of the Erasmus+: Youth in Action Programme in the Programme’s Partner Countries in the Western Balkans – Strategic Analysis Including Recommendations in the Field of Youth (SALTO SEE, December 2019)
• Dunja Potočnik and Dragan Stanojević, Quality Development of Youth Work in South East Europe (EC – COE Youth Partnership, 2019)
• Outcomes of the 1st and 2nd Europe-Western Balkans Youth Meetings (SALTO SEE, German, Macedonian and Slovenian National Agencies, 2016 and 2018)
• European Youth Strategy 2019 - 2027