Regional Consultation Meeting: EU – Western Balkans Cultural Relations

International activity | Yane Calovski |Regional Consultation Meeting: EU – Western Balkans Cultural Relations | Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina | 8-9 April 2019

The Cultural Diplomacy Platform invited Yane Calovski to participate to the Regional (Western Balkans) Consultation meeting, which will take place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 8 - 9 April 2019. His work with Press to Exit and JADRO – Association of the independent culture scene - is identified as an important stakeholder to contribute to this process and be valuable to the success of the meeting. Together with other stakeholders Yane was invited to discuss and address opportunities, needs and potential ways of developing and enhancing EU-Western Balkans cultural relations.

The Cultural Diplomacy Platform (CDP) has been launched in March 2016 by the European Commission to support the European Union (EU) with the implementation of a new 'Strategy for international cultural relations'. In the framework of its 2019 activities, the Platform is organising a Regional Consultation meeting that should feed in and nurture the process leading to: development and adoption of the EU-Western Balkans cultural relations strategy as stated in the New European Agenda for Culture of May 2018 and in line with the Strategy on international cultural relations; and development and design of Regional programs on Culture and Creativity in the WB region.

The meeting gathered different cultural stakeholders from the Western Balkans region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Republic of Serbia), various experts, representatives of different services of the European Commission (FPI, DG EAC, EEAS, DG NEAR etc.), CDP, representatives of Creative Europe Desks, EU Delegations etc. The discussions lead to a set of proposals which will later be gathered in a document by the experts.