Five young civil servants from Albania, FYROM, Montenegro, Kosovo* and Bosnia and Herzegovina have spent two weeks at the Ministry of Finance of Serbia within the “EU Scheme for young professionals in the Western Balkans”. After having finished their placement, they all agreed that they were happy with what they had learnt at Serbian institutions.

Martin Noveski, Muhamed Latifi, Helios Reveli, Dijana Dedić and Danilo Smolović took part in the programme as a part of the group of 30 young public servants who had been selected by the European Union to participate in a pilot education and exchange programme.

Five young civil servants from the region have been brought closer to the process of drafting the budget of Serbia and paid a visit to public institutions such as the Ministry of Finance and the National Bank of Serbia. They all agree that they gained valuable experience during their visit to Serbian institutions.

The civil servants from the region were welcomed by the Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Oskar Benedikt and Acting Director of the Serbian European Integration Office Ksenija Milenkovic.

Benedikt recalled that the EU funded the programme for young professionals and added that he hoped they would all stay in touch with one another.

The pilot programme “EU Scheme for young professionals in the Western Balkans“ was established as a follow-up to the Summit on the Western Balkans held in Paris in 2016.

All programme participants had previously attended a training course at the School of Public Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris.

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with the UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.