Regional solutions to the problems of the citizens

A meeting of the Regional Academy for the Democratic Development took place in Belgrade from March 5 to 7. Members of the Parliaments, ministers, officials, and activists from the region discussed possibilities for cooperation in the region and finding common solutions to the problems facing all Western Balkan countries.

Participants from Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, and Kosovo agreed that citizens’ problems know no state borders and that air pollution, poverty, young people leaving the region, pandemics, lack of democracy, poor education system and weak institutions recognize no boundaries, and that solutions to these problems cannot be partial. They concluded that it is high time for the countries of the region to realize that they are allies in the important job ahead of them, and not opponents who set obstacles for each other and competing against each other.

At the beginning of the meeting, the participants were addressed by the Ambassador of Switzerland to Serbia H.E. Urs Schmidt, the director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Belgrade Max Brandle, and the director of the Western Balkans program at the Olof Palme Center Jonas Anderson.

Several founders of the Academy for the Development of Democracy, MP from Bosnia and Herzegovina Sasa Magazinovic, MP from Croatia Bojan Glavasevic, State Secretary for European Affairs of Northern Macedonia Kalinka Gaber, and former member of the Serbian Parliament Aleksandra Jerkov spoke at the press conference.

After defining topics that are common to all countries in the region, the Academy for the Democratic Development of will in the coming period develop policies in these areas and work to make the solutions they offer an integral part of national policies.