11 & 12 July, 2023

Empowering and building skills is one of the main objectives of Connecting Youth work since 2017. CY platform continually increases the capacities of its members, develops their skills and abilities so that they can work broadening their goals and deepening their contribution in their communities. Under this objective, on 11 and 12 July 2023, CDI, with the support of Hanns Seidel Foundation, delivered a capacity building training focused on the EU Cohesion-led instruments: EUSAIR and INTERREG programmes.

The training was facilitated by Ph.D. Besiana Ninka, coming from a long experience working with Interreg and IPA CBC programmes and currently part of INTERACT team and was greeted by Ph.D. Klaus Fiesinger, the Regional Director for Southeast Europe of Hanns-Seidel-Foundation who pointed out the importance of Cohesion and Enlargement Policy. He brought to everyone attention the 4 points programme of the Growth Plan aiming at accelerating the Enlargement Policy, especially for the WB countries, that was introduced by Mrs. Von der Leyen. He stated that it is important a gradual and patrial integration of the region to the EU Market and an increase of the IPA funds.

The training programme was conducted in line with ongoing work that CY is doing in the region and the CY Strategy 2022-2024. It introduced the participants to the Cohesion policy processes. They learned what is it about, why and how did it start and how does it work, starting from the Programming phase to the Technical Assistance & Capacity Building. Furthermore, they learned about the funding instruments of the Cohesion Policy, it’s priorities and its concrete impact in Europe.

In addition to that, of a substantial importance was discussing about EU Enlargement Policy. Western Balkan youth were interested to learn more about the steps toward joining the EU as all the WB countries aspire to be part of the Union. They gained a better understanding of the main steps to EU Accession, learned about 35 negotiation chapters and discussed its importance when it comes to social and economic development that the policy brings.

WB6 countries are part of the Adriatic and Ionian Region, therefore during the training it was dedicated a space to EUSAIR Strategy and its priorities as well.

A special attention was given to INTERREG Programmes, which tackled the interest of the participants, as it was an unheard programme for most of them. They retained information regarding the strands of Interreg, core principles, policy objectives, and learned more about Interreg IPA and IPA CBC programmes.

Finally, the participants learned about the School of Open Cohesion, which promotes the engagement of students in monitoring the effectiveness of EU Cohesion Policy and fostering the culture of active citizenship and Interreg Volunteer Youth, a program for young people eager to gain new international experiences through volunteering and interested to contribute to solidarity projects.

As the training was organized online, it was ensured the continuous interaction by open questions and group exercises in order to engage the participants and get their opinions and contributions during the sessions.

Participants represented National Youth Councils of the WB6, youth organizations or activists working in the civil society sector.

CDI has initiated end of 2022 the cooperation with Connecting Youth partners in the framework of CDI-DG Regio initiative “Raising awareness on the Youth Manifesto in the WB6”. Partners were involved in the organization of more than 16 events in the WB6. Moreover, in order to increase the participation of youth in the governance and decision-making processes of the EUSAIR and INTERREG IPA programmes in the EUSAIR region, CY supported Youth Councils visit and participation at the 8th Edition of the EUSAIR Forum organized in the framework of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Chairmanship of the EUSAIR on 23-25 May. This Capacity building is another milestone in building skills and developing networking opportunities for the CY network and their contribution in the Cohesion instruments in the region.

PowerPoint Presentation