We are proud to present you the last episode of the new mini-series of five podcast episodes within our MladiRini Talks, achieved in cooperation with the EU Balkans Forum. We wanted to give you an opportunity to hear what their experiences were, what they learned, and what are the common problems that young people from the EU and the Western Balkans share.

In the last episode, our guests were the Italian Ambassador to Serbia, H.E. Carlo Lo Cascio, and Đorđe Manov, a student of the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade. He was included in Working group 5: Many societies, one virtual space.

How do the youth see the issue of creating one virtual space as integral to the process of EU enlargement and European integration? Being the most media literate generation, should the youth be completely in charge of this process?

Subscribe to European Talks and do not miss our next episodes!

More information: mladirini.org / eubalkanforum.org

Članak Many societies, one virtual space se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

In the fourth episode, our guests were the Italian Ambassador to Serbia, H.E. Carlo Lo Cascio, and Veljko Ristić, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade. He was included in Working group 4: One Market, Many Challenges.

In the WB-6, the public sector does not always serve the needs of citizens and companies, because of a lack of transparency and persistent inefficiencies. All too often, products from the WB-6 face barriers that prevent them from reaching consumers in the EU-27 markets. Youth inactivity rates in the labour market remain high. The prospect of EU integration has lost credibility in the whole region due to profound doubts about admitting new members in some EU capitals, creating a dangerous vacuum for nationalist projects.

Did the Western Balkan youth encounter that the participants from the region had different views on the discussed issues from the colleagues from the EU? How hard was it to come to conclusions and recommendations? And what was the main point that youth took away from being participants in this WG?

Find out in this episode!

Članak One market, many challenges se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

In the third episode, our guests were the Italian Ambassador to Serbia, H.E. Carlo Lo Cascio, and Dragana Grahovac, student of Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade. She was included in Working group 3: One continent, one environment

There is a strong disbalance between the adoption and implementation and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. What did youth leaders propose as a solution? Is civil society one of the key stakeholders in the fight against and adaptation to climate change?

Find out in this episode!

Članak One continent, one environment se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

EU Balkans Forum is an opportunity for youth from the entire European continent to discuss common issues, face policymakers and mobilize new energies from below, facilitating the emergence of a young transnational network to engineer new initiatives and bring about fresh views on both the EU and Balkan integration. The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO), Study Center for International Politics from Rome, and the Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa were involved in the creation and work of the forum. The forum was financially supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Within this initiative, two university students for each of the 27 UE Member States and four from each of the Western Balkans 6 countries gathered together in Rome to discuss topics on the importance of the Western Balkans and the EU. They were divided into five working groups.

Now, you have an opportunity to hear what their experiences were, what they learned, what are the common problems that young people from the EU and the Western Balkans share.

In the second episode, our guests were the Italian Ambassador to Serbia, H.E. Carlo Lo Cascio, and Uroš Anđelković, Serbian UN Youth Delegate at Una Serbia. He was included in Working group 2: United In Diversity, Beyond Past Wars.

The last 25 years have shown the lack of a real engagement of high-level politicians and governments in supporting and promoting the multi-lateral reconciliation process. That’s why, for example, educational systems in many Western Balkan countries have been shaped by mono-national narratives based on the concept of victim vs. antagonist.

Being a very sensitive issue within the region, could such topic be adequately discussed with colleagues from the EU? If youth is involved in the reconciliation process as well as the EU integration process, will they be able to get some sense of ownership of their present and future and hence become less sceptic of the process?

The new episode will arrive every Monday at 14.00.

Subscribe to European Talks and do not miss our next episodes!

More information: www.mladirini.org / www.eubalkanforum.org

Članak United In Diversity, Beyond Past Wars se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

We are proud to present you a new mini-series of five podcast episodes within our MladiRini Talks, achieved in cooperation with the EU Balkans Forum.

EU Balkans Forum is an opportunity for youth from the entire European continent to discuss common issues, face policymakers and mobilize new energies from below, facilitating the emergence of a young transnational network to engineer new initiatives and bring about fresh views on both the EU and Balkan integration. The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO), Study Center for International Politics from Rome, and the Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa were involved in the creation and work of the forum. The forum was financially supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Within this initiative, two university students for each of the 27 UE Member States and four from each of the Western Balkans 6 countries gathered together in Rome to discuss topics on the importance of the Western Balkans and the EU. They were divided into five working groups.

Now, you have an opportunity to hear what their experiences were, what they learned, what are the common problems that young people from the EU and the Western Balkans share.

In the first episode, our guests were the Italian Ambassador to Serbia, H.E. Carlo Lo Cascio, and Jovana Popova, a master’s student from the Faculty of Political Sciences. She was included in Working group 1: The New EU between governmental cooperation and democracy below.

How to couple deepening and enlargement? What role can the Balkans play in this? Find out in our new episode!

The new episode will arrive every Monday at 14.00.

Subscribe to European Talks and do not miss our next episodes!

More information: www.mladirini.org

Članak The New EU between governmental cooperation and democracy from below se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Članak Serbia’s progress and preparation for EU membership 2021 se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Ove nedelje na MladiRini podkastu smo imali tu čast da ugostimo nepobedivi tandem istraživačkog novinarstva, Dušan Čavić i Dušan Šaponja, poznatiji kao Marka Žvaka. Saznali smo šta su oni radili kao mladi, kako su postali ono što jesu, zašto su odlučili da ostanu u zemlji, kako biraju aktere svojih priča, i zašto smatraju da je zaštita životne sredine iskaz vrhunskog rodoljublja.

Poslušajte i recite nam da li se slažete sa njihovim stavovima o mladima i njihovom položaju u društvu!

Članak Doza nade, ironije i zavitlavanja se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Gošća desete epizode našeg MladiRini podkasta je Ivana Antonijević, v.d. direktorka beogradske kancelarije Regionalna kancelarija za saradnju mladih (RYCO).

Za više informacija o MladiRini platformi, posetite: www.mladirini.org
Za više informacija o RYCO, posetite: www.rycowb.org

Članak Mladima na Zapadnom Balkanu prvi identitet je – mladi se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

U petoj epizodi MladiRini podkasta ugostili smo Miloša Maškovića, predsednika Centra za afirmaciju i razvoj mladih (CARM).

Više informacija o našoj inicijativi pronađite na www.mladirini.org.

Članak Pasivnost mladih ili nedostatak prilika? se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

U četvrtoj epizodi MladiRini podkasta, naš gost je bio Stefan Đorđević, generalni sekretar Krovne organizacije mladih (KOMS).

Sa njim smo pričali o tome kako motivisati mlade da ostanu u zemlji i da se bore za bolji život u Srbiji. Pričali smo i o tome koliki potencijal Srbija gubi kada isključuje mlade iz procesa odlučivanja, koji su kanali za uključivanje mladima dostupni i kako osigurati da se glas mladih zaista i čuje.

Članak Odabrati borbu, a ne odlazak se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

In the past few months, Serbia has been covered by a veil of smog, making breathing and living difficult. According to daily statistics provided by AirVisual, which uses the methodology established by the US AQI index, Belgrade, Smederevo, and many other Serbian cities have topped the index of 300, meaning that the air and pollution were hazardous for health of all. At the time of writing of this blog, the quality of air in Belgrade is at an index of 152, meaning that it is considered as unhealthy and that actions such as exercising outside or even opening your window are not recommended. Moreover, this past weekend, thousands of people and more than 85 NGOs came together at an “Ecological uprising” demanding action from the government of Serbia in order to protect their basic human right of having a safe environment. This was a demonstration of how people in Serbia have started taking this problem very seriously and have created a sort of a critical mass calling for swift action and change. Civil society organizations have been very active and vocal in expressing their dissatisfaction with the state of the environment and the lack of regulation which ensures the right of citizens to a healthy environment mandated by Article 74 of the Constitution. Hence, this topic which has gained momentum has to be further examined and discussed in order to see what Serbia is doing and how that fits in their path towards becoming a full EU member.

It is quite clear that the issue of air pollution is horizontal and cross-cutting. Let us first start by looking at the health of the society. According to the State of Global Air 2020 report, air pollution is considered the fourth leading risk and cause of premature death in the world, accounting to 12% of all deaths, with more than 6.7 million deaths in 2019. The same report indicates that due to the large amount of particulate matter (PM) 2.5 particles in the air, over 3,600 people die prematurely in Serbia, more than half of whom are from Belgrade. Other, more recent research on the impact of polluted air on health of Serbian citizens, estimates that 6,394 people die prematurely every year as a result of breathing extremely polluted air. Therefore, as Serbia is already suffering from the “white plague” and diminishing population, this additional mortality would simply further reduce capacities of becoming a productive EU member state, compromising its membership.

When looking at the budget allocations, Serbia currently allocates 0.5% of GDP to the protection of the environment. However, as Chapter 27, titled Environment and Climate Change, whose legislation accounts for a third of the acquis, is one of the most expensive ones for implementing, these budget allocations need to be significantly increased. In order to meet the priorities of the EU, the precondition is that these budget allocations need to increase to more than 1% of GDP, or about 500 million euros per annum. The EU has already invested close to 700 million euros which have been put into environmental management since 2000 benefitting over one million citizens directly through the provision of better water and waste management services, cleaner air, safer chemicals, and others. Considering the level of EU’s assistance to Serbia regarding these issues, the EU has every right to be very critical of Serbia’s inaction for non-action in these sectors.

On top of that Serbia is, in fact, at a monetary loss and putting itself in a worse position by implementing projects without any regard for the environmental hazards it brings with them. Many of these projects and initiatives have been funded by third actors, such as China, hence strengthening their already strong foothold in the country. Ling Long Tires, for example, has been involved in building a tire factory in the city of Zrenjanin. According to the Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute (RERI), this factory is being built without proper permits, but more importantly without a conducted environmental impact study and public discourse about the same. Not only are this type of production and the activities done within the factory are considered to be “dirty” and unsustainable, but the Government funding of such activity is illegal and thus impacting the wobbly state of the rule of law in Serbia.

While this is just one example of how the existing rules and laws have been bended or surpassed in the industrial sector, many other examples of such industries have also been affecting the environment. Železara Smederevo, RTB Bor, but also Rio Tinto and the small hydropower energy plants, have all made their strong impact on the state of clean air and overall ecosystems, and have been included in the list of reasons of why fulfilling the obligations under the Chapter 27 is ever-more distant. In sum, all of these examples indicate that the environmental questions in Serbia come second to the short-term economic gain.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Serbia has still not developed an updated Strategy to deal with environmental degradation, climate change and the air quality. The last adopted Strategy for tackling climate change and its related problems was adopted in January 2010, meaning that for 11 years now Serbia has not looked at environmental degradation seriously. The government officials need to swiftly assemble and discuss how they will go about regulating these important issues and prepare themselves for the taunting implementation of the acquis. The Strategy does not set out a goal of allowing continuous deterioration of the quality of air on a yearly basis, even though this is continuously happening. Therefore, the lack of a more comprehensive Strategy is supplemented by the fact that the same needs to be updated in order to put this deterioration trend to a halt.

At this present stage, it is becoming increasingly clear that Serbia and its officials lack determination to commit to reducing air pollution and tacking the horrendous state of the environment – areas which are of paramount importance for joining the EU. In fact, the Energy Community has already taken legal action against Serbia for its noncompliance with the Large Combustion Plants Directive in 2018 and 2019, meaning that Serbia polluted more than they complied to. This should serve as a wake-up call for decision-makers as this legal action can be a strong precedent for future legal actions. Therefore, if the practice of environmental neglect continues to take place in Serbia, it could be expected that the EU will become less inclined to tolerate the degradation of the quality of air and will not comply with the polluting practices of the Serbian industry, particularly considering their negative cross-border effect.

For Serbia to even have a chance to open (and close) Chapter 27, and potentially become an EU member by 2030, it needs to buckle down and start working on improving air quality and diminishing emissions. This becomes all the more important considering the already mentioned decreasing population rates and increasing premature mortality. Although they have not been perceived as such by the officials, civil society organisations remain the Government’s key ally, when it comes to fostering sustainable practices which would increase compliance of industry to internationally set pollution standards.

Članak Environmental Neglect in Serbia se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.