The Conference took place in Tirana on 9 December 2022. It was organized by CDI in cooperation with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and in partnership with Tirana European Youth Capital 2022. The aim of the evetn was to learn more about Interreg IPA programmes, how to engage and benefit from these programmes and to broaden our networks.
Some answers to one of the main questions on how is Interreg and specifically EUSAIR investing in young people were provided by Magdalena Rakovec from the Centre for European Perspective, who with EUSAIR Facility Point Lead Partner co-organised (Young) EUSAIR Communication Academy. At the discussion “INTERREG IPA: Entry points and available engagement mechanisms for youth” she talked about Academy as a good practice example of the inclusion of young people. While the overall objective of the Academy was raising awareness of EUSAIR among young people and their final outputs were EUSAIR digital campaigns, the Academy also greatly improved the knowledge and communication skills of the young participants, therefore also contributing to their skill-building in an increasingly important area. Improving young people’s skills and better (digital) communication are two of the five fields identified in the Youth Manifesto as challenges that EU cooperation should strive to address. At the discussion, other youth activities such as EUSAIR Popri competition, developments in the field of the institutionalisation of youth inclusion in EUSAIR, the content of the recommendation of the Youth Manifesto and how to apply them, have also been addressed.
