Mar 15, 2010

News

Young Leaders Call for a European Future for the Western Balkans

Twenty years after the Berlin Wall crumbled, young leaders from the Western Balkans came together to discuss the remaining barriers to a united and free Europe. Over 350 young human rights, civic, and political activists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia met in Belgrade to strengthen ties between their war-torn communities and move their countries closer to EU membership.

The Belgrade Summit, held December 4-6, 2009, was a joint project of the National Endowment for Democracy and Youth Initiative for Human Rights, the leading youth organization in Serbia and the region. Its purpose was to promote cross-border cooperation between youth in the Western Balkans and their counterparts in the EU. The three-day event also served as a springboard for improved cooperation among these young leaders dealing with the common problems that have plagued their six countries’ transitions. 

NED President Carl Gershman used the Summit’s opening ceremony to urge these young activists to assume responsibility for the future and to take the lead in building the democratic societies needed for European integration. He also reaffirmed continued NED and U.S. support in their shared struggle for freedom and democracy.

Mr. Gershman also called for more cross-border work in the Balkans on four different levels: among countries in the region, with the EU’s New Member States, with West European countries, and on a global basis. He cited the regional civil society initiative to create a truth-seeking body, RECOM, led by long-time NED grantee and Democracy Award recipient Natasa Kandic, as an example, and identified it as crucial to overcoming the Balkans’ divisive past. Later, Mr. Gershman concluded his remarks to a plenary session by declaring that, in order to prosper in the region, democracy needs “solidarity, with which the remaining walls of division can be torn down.”

Through working groups and plenary sessions on topics such as “Dealing with the Past,” “Rule of Law: A Precondition for Responsible and Accountable Society” and “Youth in Decision-making Processes: Role and Influence,” the Summit looked at the many challenges to democratization and EU integration in the region. More effective democratic and human rights youth networks were highlighted as a means for coping with these challenges.

The event also included a series of sessions on expanding global youth networks and the use of new technologies to exchange information. Young people from Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine and Azerbaijan took part in these sessions, which were organized in cooperation with the World Youth Movement for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute, and the International Republican Institute.

Notable speakers at the event included H.E. Krister Bringeus, Sweden’s Ambassador to Serbia; Stephen Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; Pierre Mirel, European Commission Director of DG Enlargement for the Western Balkans; and Doris Pack, member of the European Parliament.

At the event’s conclusion, the participants unanimously adopted The Belgrade Declaration, in which they pledged to strengthen ties with their governments, bolster democratic principles in their societies, and employ new technologies and media to foster Euro-Atlantic values. The document was submitted to all governments in the region and the EU, and will be used by young activists as an advocacy and benchmarking tool to promote the reforms necessary for a more peaceful, democratic and European Western Balkans.