Dear Friends,
This time I would like to welcome you into our pages expressing my concern about an issue that, I’m sure, concerns so many of us.
I am here in my office and I am looking outside the window. Air is so heavy. Sun is so shining. Here in Italy, there is such a hot temperature.
It is not raining.
There is no water.
We cannot wash our cars and someone is already talking about rationing for other daily activities that we usually do without thinking.
I am thinking about some of the Regional Cooperation Projects and their attention to those urging issues, and about the high interest the Fund has. Just think about our priority areas: that is why I feel understood.
We really need to keep alive all actions towards a recovery of our planet. Because these days, at least here, we understand that, if we do not go on with this fight, in the near future related problems will be multiplying. Climate change, biodiversity, nature, circular economy, pollution, waste and water management… I could go on a lot, but those concepts are only the most important we need to consider to create new basis into our lifestyles.
And, again, I am sure you are already doing that, thanks to your actions. We need also, however, to disseminate them as much as possible.
Those days, the Green Track campaign, organised by the European Commission in collaboration with the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) and Biodiversity Action Europe (BAE), just ended. And this is just an example of what we can, and must, do. Not surprisingly, it has been englobed into the European Year of Youth: who, if not our young, will live our planet the next years? And as we know, Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are all interconnected and mutually reinforcing, with major negative impacts on health, economy and the natural world.
In short, we always end up talking about young people. Like our friend Tom did, while considering other, but equally urgent issues. Since in this changing world, in where we are running faster and faster, another worrying problem is youth criminalisation. And how could we count on our young, if we do not spread a ‘child-friendly’ justice? Tom is talking about that, please go and read his reflection.
And, talking about justice, but also about some ‘positiveness’ related to the re-start of physical events, let me invite you to read our pages dedicated to the international conference which was held in Tirana, Albania, within the framework of the Project ‘Portrait of a Judge – a multi-dimensional model of competencies to be measured during the procedures of selection, evaluation and promotion of judges’: ‘Through regional cross-border cooperation and human connectivity towards shared solutions for strengthening the Rule of Law’ has been attended by more than 120 participants!
Talking about Albania, and before going back to our RC Projects, let me spend some words about the Ministerial Meeting of the Western Balkans Platforms on Culture, Research and Innovation, education and Training, held in Tirana just two days ago. A fundamental step further towards a closer cooperation in these policy areas. Indeed, it has been announced the launch of a new Enhanced Partnership with the Western Balkans under the Erasmus+ programme, to give education organisations and institutions of that area which are not associated, the possibility to take part in strategic actions.
While I was virtually in Tirana, instead, our Nora was physically representing EEA & Norway Grants and therefore FMO in Zagreb, the last 7th of June, at the Policy Forum ‘Anti-Corruption and Good Governance in Southeast Europe: Towards Shared Anti-Corruption and Good Governance Solutions’ (in the context of the initiative ‘Regional Good Governance Public-Private Partnership Platform’ – R2G4P Project, coordinated by the Center for the Study of Democracy), which discussed how the anti-corruption fatigue and entrenched state capture networks can be effectively counteracted.
Please, read not only the summary of that events, but also the interview to Nora, since she is replying to some interesting, and important, questions, which have something related to all of us.
Because, as I strongly believe, it is true that the Regional Cooperation Fund is based on different and various areas of interest; while I think that they are all interlinked.
justice is related to anti-corruption measures and climate change is influencing the lives of all of us, passing by education needs, even if your specific job has ‘nothing’ to do with the fight against it.
Therefore, please keep exchanging inspiring practices and hints ‘exploiting’ this virtual space, our Mag. Which becomes real as soon as we understand that the issues it is covering are touching concretely each one of us.
Enjoy our Mag, hoping it will be again, for anyone, a food for thought.
Gian Luca Bombarda
The Fund Director
