The final Module of the project “Minorities in Western Balkans” took place between 30th November and 1st December in Skopje, Macedonia. This was already the 3rd Module of the project, after a successful Study Trip to the region of Schleswig-Holstein organized by the Federal Union of European Nationalities, and the 1st local Training in Belgrade and Skopje in July this year. In the previous Module that took place in Jaruplund/Flensburg, Germany, the participants could gain several new experiences in the field of minority protection and cross-sectoral cooperation between the NGOs and the authorities, which they developed into their own project ideas that can be realized in their own countries.

Of course not all of the Schleswig-Holstein examples can be directly implemented, but there is always a start for some of them. So the main aim of the last Module of the Project was to collect all the ideas and to further develop them, together with the support of our project partners: Region of Schlewig-Holstein, European Centre For Minority Issues - ECMI, German Association for International Cooperation -GIZ and FUEN. And there were a lot of concrete and good project ideas presented, focused on improving the situation of minorities and vulnerable groups as well as on increasing the level of their participation in the political decision making processes. One crucial aspect of the project is the cooperation between the representatives of the authorities and the civil society from the same municipality. So also the ideas have been developed in a tight cooperation of both sectors.

There were seven concrete projects developed, to mention some of them:

1. Centre for Minorities in Tuzla, BiH

2. Educational and administrative support of mediators for Roma in Obrenovac, SRB

3. Safe house for unaccompanied minors in Kumanovo, MCD

4. Creating a minority forum/council in Prizren and Uroševac/Ferizaj in Kosovo and in Tetovo, MCD

5. Commissioner for minority affairs in  Bijeljina, BiH.

All these projects will hopefully be kicked off with the support of the new edition of the project in 2017. We would like to thank all of our project partners for a strong cooperation and we are looking forward to the new edition of the project in 2017.

*You can watch the documentary film about the Study Trip to Schleswig-Holstein here.

*You can read about the Study Trip to Schleswig-Holstein here.