CY continues its work to further strengthen youth connectivity in the region. For the 7th year in a row the CY team gathered to discuss the working priorities for 2023.

Hosted by our partner National Youth Council of Macedonia, the Kickoff Meeting brought the partners together at Europe House in Skopje, on 14 March. Yearly meeting in one of the WB6 Capitals will be from now on the new tradition of CY Team.

Talking about novelties, this year we welcomed in our partnership Youth Network of Montenegro (YNM), a newly formed network composed of 35 civil society organizations that work towards strengthening the role of youth in society in Montenegro. The main goal of the Youth Network is to represent the rights and interests of young people, create and advocate for solutions to systemic challenges, connect youth policy actors and strengthen the capacities of member organizations.

Our contact point for this year in YNM will be Vladimir Perazic. We also welcomed the new representative from National Youth Congress of Albania, Mariza Rama and Iman Maslic for Youth Council of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Whereas the other team members remain the same: Anja Jokic-KOMS, Ditjon Fetahu-KYC, Filip Kulakov-NYCM, thus creating a gender balanced group :)

When it comes to the programmatic intervention of CY in the region, the Strategic Plan 2022-2024 has already paved the way for our work.

Increased evidence-based research and assessment of sectoral policies from youth perspective, enhancing youth connectivity in the region and investing in skills, advancing the capacities of youth organizations to uphold and represent their position are the pillars where our joint efforts are based in order to facilitate youth empowerment and development in the region.

This year besides the work on updating the policy paper on Youth Guarantee Deployment in SEE6, CY partners will prepare a new paper on 'Role of SEE6 Youth in EU Integration Process”. 2023 is the 20 anniversary of Thessaloniki Summit which paved the way for the European perspective of the WB6, so what better year voice up youth position with regard to the EU Integration process?

With the region facing youth migration processes, the role of youth in all the countries is even more crucial for the acceleration of the EU integration process.

In order to do so, it’s of key significance to deepen the skills and knowledge of youth on research methods, policy analysis and advocacy, networking opportunities that’s why CY will enable tailored capacity building for youth on IPA and will continue to serve its purpose as a resourceful bridge between youth in the region and regional events, including here the yearly Tirana Connectivity Forum and the INTERREG IPA EUSAIR Conference under the Bosnian Chairmanship of the EUSAIR, which will give youngsters the opportunity to meet and discuss directly with policy makers.