Dear Friends,
two months have passed and meanwhile one new year began. This upcoming period will be full of several news starting from the EEA & Norway Grants’ support to the European Year of Youth, as we already anticipated. And related to that, we have a nice and important news coming from Tirana! The European Youth Culture 2022! It is a pleasure, for us as Fund Operator, to welcome the National youth Congress of Albania in our Regional Cooperation Mag. Why? Because it recently organised (this last February 4th) the opening ceremony of Tirana EYC 2022, with more than 3000 participants and 22 delegations coming from the region and Europe, national and international institutions, ambassadors and young people. Therefore, I see the link!
After all, as said by the EU Ambassador Luigi Soreca, we are not talking only about the European Union. It is better to think about a “Team Europe”. «Tirana European Youth Capital is first of all a fabulous opportunity for the youth of this city and this country to share their vision, to present their talents, to meet other people, to engage in activities. For having met many young Albanians across the country in the last three and half years, I have seen for myself that Albania’s youth concentrates an immense potential, energy, and a strong willingness to build a better country for their own future». But, the European Youth Capital is more than that: «It is also a chance to put Tirana – and indeed Albania as whole – on the map of all Europeans. It is a unique occasion for all young Albanians to address the world, project the image of Albania that they want, and share their expectations about the future they strive for, as part of the EU». And I believe that those words can be inspirational for all of us, when thinking about our cities.
Not surprisingly, talking about cities, just after our Friend Tom’s usual interesting insight about inclusion, we have dedicated a specific place in this issue to a city… you will discover which city is by browsing our pages 🙂
But this doesn’t mean that our Online Magazine will remain into the background: on the contrary, our Mag can only be a further supporter in terms of more spaces for visibility and dissemination purposes. However, the Regional Cooperation Fund is only indirectly linking to youth, which is, instead, the main target of the Youth Employment Fund.
That is why, in one week, we will have the chance to see you and decide together the planning of the year for your info-comm activities. It is a pity that, again, this will be a virtual reunion, but who knows if we can consider it the last one… 🙂
In any case, this first message for this new year, with the occasion of the next meeting and its scope, wants to be an encouragement for you all. The Regional Cooperation Mag was born last year, in the middle of a pandemic, and unfortunately we didn’t have the chance to meet in person, face to face was limited to the monitors of our personal computer.
We have tried to always involve you and we have done our best to make you appreciate the Mag as a further sharing space. But…. We need you, your fantasy and your ideas, to turn your good practices in concrete examples to share here, beyond what they already are themselves.
We believe that the Regional Funds Week of last December was a great opportunity where we demonstrated that we are part of the same Family sharing common values. We need to keep up, and to strengthen, this path. And of course, we would like you to “exploit” the Mag as much as possible.
And in relation to the important and innovative opportunities we have experienced all together, I am very happy, but not surprise, to have in this Regional Cooperation issue two contributions coming from the Youth Employment. Please have a look at the YOUTShare space, “Guaranteeing Youth Employability in the Mediterranean EU South: evidence from a cross-regional research”, and also at the MOOC Platform of the Blue Generation Project, born to “inform youth & future promoters about the job and training opportunities that exist for young people in the 7 different sub-sectors of Blue Economy in Europe”. A demonstration, considering the topics mentioned, that is it possible to cooperate, isn’t it?
“We want to hear from you”! I am stealing the EU-WATERRES Project slogan first of all because I want to support their “call”, but also because I believe that these words are reflecting, while referring to another concept, the same meaning that this first page wants to transmit. Hoping you got the message, I can only promote the idea(s) of our Project(s). Therefore, meanwhile, visit this link https://bit.ly/3LRoKGH, select your language considering the countries concerned (Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine) and proceed if you think this can be of interest… 🙂
Let’s give the next Regional Cooperation Magazine’s issues a renovated identity, I am sure we can make it, following your specific sectors of intervention and, therefore, your inspiring practices covering the most disparate, but fundamental, areas.
«We want to encourage all young people, especially those with fewer opportunities or from disadvantaged backgrounds, to become active citizens and actors of positive change. We want to promote opportunities provided by EU policies for young people to support their personal, social and professional development. We want to draw inspiration from the actions, vision and insights of young people. As Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, put it: “our Union will be stronger if it is more like our next generation: reflective, determined and caring. Grounded in values and bold in action”». (Luigi Soreca, EU Ambassador, launching of Tirana European Youth Capital 2022)
Gian Luca Bombarda
The Fund Director
