BELGRADE – A two-week exchange program “European Young Professionals Program in the Western Balkans” has come to an end. At the farewell cocktail held at the EU Information Center on Thursday, participants were welcomed by Oskar Benedikt, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia.
Five qualified officials from the Western Balkans had the opportunity to participate in this exchange program which included a series of meetings with the Ministry of Finance and other relevant institutions as well as group work. The project is funded by the European Commission and implemented by the British Council.
Among the group of 30 young professionals who participated in this project, five of them – Dijana Dedić, Helios Reveli, Danilo Smolović, Muhamed Latifi and Martin Noveski were assigned to the Serbia group, carrying out research on the topic “Procedures budgetary measures towards efficiency. “.
At the farewell cocktail held on Thursday at the EU Information Centre, participants were welcomed by Oscar Benedict, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia.
Benedict expressed hope that the participants would learn something useful and that they would have the opportunity to implement this knowledge in their home countries.
“One of the main goals is to create better synergies, where people can get to know each other, and some of the participants can even become ministers of the General Directorate later, and they will know each other, which is a good thing” , he explained.
Ksenija Milenković, Director of the Serbian Office for European Integration, also addressed the participants.
“We are very happy to welcome colleagues from the civil servant community from across the region and welcome them here in Belgrade for two weeks,” she said. Milenković also explained that the main goal is to connect civil servants in the Western Balkans region.
“This program had two parts: the first was training at the Sciences Po School of Public Affairs in Paris in October and the second part was regional, where participants completed internships in government institutions on a particular topic,” she explained.
The next steps for the project participants, who come from ministries of finance, European integration or prime ministers’ offices, will be to draft a group paper which they will present at a conference in May.
