EU Delegation to Serbia supports the candidacy of Novi Sad for European Youth Capital 2018, said Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport.
“I should like to express the EU Delegation’s support to the City of Novi Sad and its partner organisations for their candidacy for the award of European Youth Capital 2018. As the only city from Serbia and South-East Europe competing for this title in 2018, there is no doubt that Novi Sad could become a national and regional hub for fostering new youth ideas, policies and projects,” he said.
The ‘European Youth Capital’, Davenport added, is an excellent initiative of the European Youth Forum, which enjoys the full support of the European Commission. This initiative encourages European cities to compete against each other in offering the best opportunities to their young citizens and gives young people a chance to participate fully in their cities’ cultural, social, political and economic life, he said.
“I wish the City of Novi Sad every possible success in it endeavour to become the European Youth Capital for 2018,” Davenport said.
What is European Youth Capital?
The ‘European Youth Capital’ is a title awarded to a European city for the period of one year.
The city proclaimed European Youth Capital the young are given the chance to showcase, through a multi-faceted programme, its youth-related cultural, social, political and economic life and development.
“European Youth Capital encourages implementation of new ideas and innovative projects, given the active, creative participation of the young in society”, reads the Facebook page dedicated to Novi Sad’s candidacy. ”The goal is to strengthen relations among European institutions and local community, as well as to encourage youth participation in implementing common European youth policy objectives at local level”.
Novi Sad is the city of youth: administrative, economic, cultural, scientific and tourist centre of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The City of Novi Sad has some 78,000 young people aged 14-30 years. Also, Novi Sad is home to one public and two private universities, with a total of some 50,000 students from all around the region. Novi Sad also hosts more than 30 high schools, but also over 100 civil sector organisations bringing together a large number of young people.
The University of Novi Sad, Youth Theatre, Student Cultural Centre, NOMUS, Ritam Evrope, Cinemania, Youth Fair, EXIT… are some of the parts of the mosaic that allow us to believe that under all criteria, Novi Sad has a potential to become 2018 European Youth Capital, reads the Facebook page of the candidacy.
“Project Novi Sad – European Youth Capital 2018 (OPENS2018) will fully promote the values prioritised in National Youth Strategy, Law on Youth of the Republic, actions plans for Vojvodina youth policies and Local Action Plan of the City of Novi Sad.
Novi Sad – European Youth Capital 2018 (OPENS2018) aims at supporting youth to become proactive initiators of positive societal changes at both the level of Novi Sad and national, regional and international levels. The candidacy of Novi Sad for European Youth Capital is an invitation to young people to actively engage in their own development and independence up-building. Thus the slogan of candidacy: ‘Live Life’,” reads the candidacy statement.
Find the list of European Youth Capital candidate cities here whereas the details about the candidacy of Novi Sad may be found here.
