Citizens’ Agenda for Waves of Democracy Serbia 2010

In the city where young people have been dynamic in expressing their political views as demonstrated by the success of the Exit festival, we have shown that future generations from the Western Balkans and the European Union, despite different and conflicting perspectives, can continue to constructively express their political views.

In July 2010 the city of Novi Sad hosted the Waves of Democracy 2010 Programme, which provided a unique opportunity to bring together 50 delegates from the Western Balkans and 50 delegates from the EU.

The programme enabled young representatives from 27 European countries to share their perspectives on five main areas: Energy and Climate Change, Regional Development, Culture and Education, New Media and Democracy and Active Citizenship.

We explored various ideas as a result of our differing backgrounds and cultures. However, in order to initiate a strong and decisive Citizens’ Agenda we practiced democratic techniques and methods such as debating, voting, compromising and the use of a common language.

Aware of the fact that both regions are facing problems we wanted to provoke critical thinking by forming five resolutions that would serve as a guideline in the process of creating regional networks and achieving long-term stability in the Western Balkans. The overall aim of our agenda was to enable efficient integration in the EU and to strengthen the relationship between the EU and the Western Balkans in an ever globalised world. This we believe to be crucial, particularly in a time of economic crisis whereby democratic principles are often endangered.

We aimed to make the resolutions as practical and specific as possible so that they address the needs of the Western Balkans and the EU. For instance, in order to reinforce the ideas of democracy we propose the establishment of an Active Balkan Citizenship and in order to improve the overall standard of European education we propose the cooperation between educational institutions and the job market.

As the future generation we understand that we are responsible for maintaining the flourishing relations between the EU and the Western Balkans and as such are not afraid to participate actively in the civil society.

These resolutions are not just formal documents, but the voice of the young Europeans. They are initiatives for encouraging mobility, since mobility leads to creating networks, networks lead to inter-regional development and inter-regional development leads to sharing knowledge, values and experiences, overall leading to respect between countries, nations and people.

Our Citizens’ Agenda is available here!

Also, you are invited to share it within your organizations, with friends, partners etc. Please visit this site for more infor about the project. What is more, similar events are due to be held in Belgrade (summer 2011) and Copenhagen (2012) so stay tuned.