YOUTH CAPITAL IN PARIS: THE BRIDGE FOR NEW PARTNERSHIPS

In front of a few dozen foreign ambassadors, representatives of the city of Paris, Serbian students in Paris as well as the French diplomatic corps at the Cultural-Information Centre of the Republic of Serbia in Paris, OPENS organised a reception in order to present the wider community the possibilities for young people in 2019 in Novi Sad, as well as global and European dimension of this title.
“The project of OPENS2019 is our project for the future. This year and in the years to come, we want to help the development and improvement of life conditions for young people in all of Serbia by our example. The city of Novi Sad has opened the door for all creative, good-intentioned people who see youth and education as the greatest potential for development and who want to use that for our mutual future”, Srđan Kružević, the Deputy Mayor of Novi Sad said.

Addressing the attendees, the ambassador of Serbia in Paris, Nataša Marić has stated that despite it being a cliché – young people do inherit the world. She says that she meets a lot of our students in Paris and that it is clear that young people will not return to Serbia unless they see some perspective, and that we are on the right track with our work and education.

The idea of the presentation to embassies and diplomatic corps of European cities is to create the space for networking and partnership with organisations and institutions from Paris, as well as to inform wider community about the activities in Novi Sad in 2019.
“These receptions have double significance. Our people abroad understand the context in which we present what we do and they can help us find partners for the achievement of the programme implemented and they can be the bridge between us and French partners. I think that it is also import to introduce diaspora with what is going on in Novi Sad and how much we are improving”,
Vukašin Grozdanović, OPENS2019 Coordinator says.

This is just the first station. In the following two months, hundreds of representatives of the diplomatic corps of Europe, representatives of European non-governmental organisations and different governments and local administrations in the cities across Europe will hear for Novi Sad – the city of young people. The idea is to introduce them with the most important projects of Novi Sad, along with the City of Novi Sad, and to invite them to visit the City which is the holder of two prestigious European titles in the year of young people.