YOUTH CAPITAL IN PRAGUE: AMBASSADORS OF THE CITY

In Prague, European Youth Capital Novi Sad, along with the representatives of The City of Novi Sad, has presented the possibilities for young people in 2019, as well as global and European dimension of this title. This is the sixth European centre in which The City of Young People opened the door to a few dozen foreign ambassadors, representatives of the German Parliament, international youth organisations and diplomatic corps. The reception is organised at Charles Bridge Museum, close to the Embassy of Serbia in Czech Republic.

“Investment in young people is investment in our future. It is extremely important that young people be included in social events in their country. I believe OPENS contributes and supports the development connections among people and thereby they are actively included in the social life”, Vera Mavrić, the ambassador of Serbia in Prague says.

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 Prague, as well as to inform the wider community about the activities in Novi Sad in the year of 2019.

“I think these receptions are extremely important in the context of bringing Serbia closer to the European Union and presentation in good light. This is why we have decided to go to as many countries of the European Union as possible not only through the programmes we organise but also on the diplomatic level, national level, to see what are the possibilities of the cooperation because it is evident that we have quality programmes and that we can be an example of good practice for many things”, Vukašin Grozdanović, OPENS Coordinator says.

The receptions organised by European Youth Capital Novi Sad, with the support of The City of Novi Sad and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the youth centres across Europe come at the moment when the Council of Europe is announcing almost complete decrease of the budget intended for young people in Europe.

“For the City, this is the opportunity to present through young people, the opportunity to show that young people are the future and to really show that young people create their policy, lives, define the budget of the city intended for young people and I think we cannot go wrong with that. The OPENS 2019 project is our project for the future. In this and in the years to come, by our example, we want to help the development and improvement of the life conditions for young people in the entire country. The City of Novi Sad has opened the door for all creative, good-natured people who see youth and education as the greatest potential for the development and who want to use that for our mutual future”, Srđan Kružević, Deputy Mayor of Novi Sad said.

All of this is not sustainable unless you think on the long run and since each programme is self-sustainable regardless of donors. According to the member of the city council for youth and sport, Ognjen Cvijetićanin, Novi Sad is the pioneer of youth policy in Serbia and it provides good model for the entire republic.

“That is what we want to show. When we join our forces and creative ideas, we come to these positive and constructive things for the City of Novi Sad, we are able to bring the world to our city and reach other goals towards sustainable policy in the City and creation of better conditions for young people, primarily when it comes to the employment of young people”, Cvjetićanin adds.

The idea of these receptions is to introduce Europe with the most important projects of Novi Sad and to invite young people to visit the City which is the holder of two prestigious European titles in the year of young people. Next week, European Youth Capital will be presented in Moscow, along with The City of Novi Sad and the representatives of the Ministry of Youth and Sport.