The project “Minorities in Western Balkans” concluded with Final Conference in Skopje

The “Minorities in Western Balkans”* project ended succesfully after two years with the Final Conference in Skopje on February 1st 2018. The conference`s main aim was to gather all the project partners, together with the international stakeholders to hear about the results and to discuss the key elements of successful knowledge transfer. 

Some of the main outcomes include the establishing of the Minority commissioner’s Office in Bijeljina (BiH) and the creation of a platform for social dialogue and cooperation in Tetovo (Macedonia) which was inspired by the DialogForumNorden, trainings in monitoring and implementation of Roman and Ashkhali action plan in Ferizaj/Uroševac and Prizren (Kosovo).  All the outcomes of the project are collected in the newly published Handbook on Minority Institutions in Schleswig-Holstein, backed up with examples of good practices and minority protection models in Schleswig-Holstein.

The project was a successful step towards the knowledge transfer from the region of Schleswig-Holstein to the Western Balkans, together with a more sustainable and long-term cooperation between the municipalities and the (mainly Roma) NGOs in five countries from the region. 

The FUEN gained a lot of new perspectives through the project. Beside the advising and capacity building role, we have also been hosting the delegations from the Western Balkans in Flensburg and were able to be the active bridge-builders between the two regions. We are very glad that the FUEN family grew by four new Roma member organisations from the Western Balkan countries. 

FUEN would like to thank all the project partners and stakeholders involved! 

Here you can find some pictures from the Final Conference in Skopje. 

Here you can read the Handbook on Minority Institution in Schleswig-Holstein

*The project, that has been part of the “Bund-Länder” pilot program, has been implemented by the project partners Deutsche Gesellschaft für international Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) and Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), on behalf of BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) co-financed by the state chancellery Schleswig-Holstein.