The winners of the contest aimed secondary school pupils as part of the “You are Europe” campaign, supported by the European Union and the Government of Switzerland, are teams from the Novi Pazar High School – Ambassadors – and Health Knights from the Bujanovac Vocational School Sveti Sava. In the finals held today in Novi Pazar on the occasion of Europe Day, they demonstrated the best knowledge of EU and European integration-related topics and were awarded with RSD100,000 grants to implement projects that will improve working and studying conditions in their respective schools.
“The grants we just received will be used to purchase two laptops and projectors in order to modernise the teaching process at our school. While preparing for the contest, we have learned a lot about the EU,” said a member of the winning team from the Novi Pazar High School, Elzana Dupljak.
The team from Bujanovac intends to help their peers to adopt healthy eating habits through educational workshops in Serbian and Albanian and through provision of “healthy meals”.
“It is essential that young people are informed about opportunities to study, volunteer and do internships in European countries because that way the doors are opened for them to acquire both new experience and knowledge that they can then use to advance their communities,” said EU Delegation Head of Operations II, Steffen Hudolin and congratulated the winners on their knowledge and bright ideas. He added that the EU and Switzerland, through the development programme European PROGRES, had supported the campaign “You are Europe” in order to make it possible for young people to find out right there in their towns, and in a user-friendly manner, about the opportunities that the European integration process is offering them.
In Novi Pazar, Steffen Hudolin also congratulated the winners of the competition for the best media report on European integration in South East and South West Serbia, and pointed out that the European Union had for a decade now been putting money into media sector in order to strengthen it, because role of the media in informing citizens is extremely important, whereas media freedoms contribute to the reinforcement of democratic processes, while at the same time are crucial for the empowerment of people and communities.
A total of 67 media reports from 23 media outlets have been submitted for the competition, organised by the European PROGRESS Programme, the EU Delegation and the European Integration Office. The prizes were awarded in eight categories, in line with the competition selection criteria and the decision made by the selection committee.
The article by Ljiljana Stojanovic of Nova Nasa reč, titled “Europe, here I come,” was pronounced the best newspaper report, while the awards for the best television and radio programmes went to Novi Pazar, to the journalists Aleksandar Niciforovic of the Radio Television Novi Pazar and Nikola Kocovic of the Radio Sto plus, for their media coverage dealing with activities aimed at flood protection of the Raška River basin. The prize in the category of the best on-line report published in an independent online media went to journalist Dragan Marinkovic from the news agency Jugmedia, while the portal Info liga from Ivanjica was awarded for the best series of media reports. The winner in the category of best entrepreneurship reports is a journalist of Južne vesti, Nikola Markovic, whose story covers self-employment of persons with disabilities, while Alma Sofic from the Sandžak TV prepared the best report on a project funded by the EU and the Swiss Government. Journalist Biljana Ljubisavljevic of the Media Investigation Centre from Nis won the award in the category dedicated to potential projects, with a report that covers the need for construction of irrigation system in Bela Palanka.
The European Union and the Government of Switzerland, through European PROGRES, will award the media outlets who have won the competition with new audio, audio-visual or computer equipment worth up to EUR5,000. The EU Delegation will award the authors of the best reports with a four-day visit to Brussels, which will be carried out through the EU project “Visits to EU institutions and member states,” whereas the Serbian European Integration Office will organise a two-day working visit to relevant national institutions engaged in the European integration process in Belgrade.
On the occasion of Europe Day, Novi Pazar hosted the show “Wake-up Call” anchored by the duo Gorica Nesovic and Dragan Ilic, who helped to make the competition for high school students even more exciting.
During the meeting with the Mayor of Novi Pazar, Nihat Bisevac, it was pointed out that the City has excellent cooperation with the EU Delegation and European PROGRES, and Steffen Hudolin also stressed the importance of regional cooperation among local self-governments included in the project for the development of Mountain Golija, seeing it is a long-term opportunity to kick-start economic development of the area through tourism and associated investments in infrastructure in the region.
The European Union and the Government of Switzerland will support the activities of the European PROGRESS programme, which contributes to the sustainable development of the South and South West Serbia, with a total of EUR24.46 million. Approved projects will be aimed at strengthening local administration creating a favourable environment for the development of infrastructure and economy as well as improving the implementation of social inclusion and employment policy. The programme is implemented by the United Nations Office for Project Service (UNOPS).
The municipalities included in the programme are as follows: Novi Pazar, Ivanjica, Nova Varos, Priboj, Prijepolje, Raska, Sjenica and Tutin in South West Serbia, as well as Prokuplje, Blace, Zitoradja, Kursumlija, Leskovac, Bojnik, Vlasotince, Lebane, Medvedja, Crna Trava, Vranje, Bosilegrad, Bujanovac, Vladicin Han, Presevo, Surdulica, Trgoviste, Brus, Aleksinac, Gadzin Han, Doljevac, Merosina, Svrljig, Babusnica, Bela Palanka and Knjazevac in South East Serbia.
