The Conference on the future of Europe gains additional value from a new event based on an Italian initiative. The EU-Western Balkan Youth Forum, promoted by the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, opens today in Rome. It is the first initiative devoted to discussion of the future of Europe and inclusion of the western Balkan states, where the new generations play a leading role.
Until November 26, Rome will host 78 university students from all the EU and Balkan countries, selected from over 1,300 applications, and 6 “Young European Ambassadors” from Balkan states who are already involved in projects sponsored by the European Commission.
The Forum, on the subject “What is Europe?”, was organized with the “Regional Cooperation Council” (Sarajevo), with the collaboration of the “Regional Youth Cooperation Office” (Tirana), the International Political Studies Center (Rome) and the Transeuropean Balkan and Caucasus Observatory (Trento).
The participants will discuss and formulate proposals about the future of the EU institutions and issues regarding identity and reconciliation, environmental challenges, opportunities and problems of the economic sector, and relations between the new media, democracy and society.
The students will present their conclusions to the Vice President of the European Commission Dubravka Šuica and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio, author of the initiative. The results, in turn, will be promulgated by Italy in the Conference on the Future of Europe, because the contribution of its youth needs to be taken into account in future institutional developments.
To increase the opportunities for meeting and discussion, the Forum will provide occasions for interaction with Italian and European personalities including, among others, the Minister for Youth Policies, Fabiana Dadone, the President of the Foreign Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, Hon. Piero Fassino, and the Secretary General of the Farnesina, Ambassador Ettore Sequi, as well as officers of the main regional organizations.
With this event, Italy confirms its position on the front line of support for inclusion in the EU to all the western Balkan countries, an essential step in completion of the European project, placing youth at the center of the discussion on the policies and priorities that Europe will have to pursue.
