Western Balkan Fund Provides Grants for 24 Projects

The grant-sharing ceremony from the FBP was held in the presence of senior officials from the respective foreign ministries of six Western Balkan countries, representatives from diplomatic missions, civil society organisations, partners and collaborators.

Western Balkan Fund Executive Director Gjergj Murra stressed during the speech held that 24 winning projects translate into the creation of more than 85 partnerships across the region.

The projects propose the creation of more than 85 partnerships across the region and bring together more than 5 thousand people from around the region. This translates into concrete activities of our mission and of our political will to enhance co-operation and connections between people”, he said.

According to Minister General of Strategic Policy Affairs with the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Mimoza Halimi is a symbol of concrete work co-operation in the region. “The perspective of cultivating good neighbourly relations between our countries in the region should be an incentive to achieve long-term stability and progress in our region, as well as to accelerate our path to the European Union”.

Slovakia's Ambassador to Albania Peter Spisiac at the summit noted the Fund's role in addressing European ambitions. The Western Balkan region has always played a key role in shaping European security and stability. The region should receive political assistance and assistance for projects as a support for its European ambitions. This would contribute to the strengthening of civil society in the region, as well as make contact between people” easier, the ambassador said.

Invited by the FBP, Olta Ceta from the Institute for Social contracted considered co-operation in joint regional projects an excellent opportunity. “The Fund of the Western Balkans is an excellent opportunity to bring people together and remove borders, in an attempt to build bridges and connect people to each other”.

For his part, Macedonia's Labour Charger in Tirana Dancho Markovski said good neighbourhood is the best example of European values. “Strengthening and improving regional co-operation is a clearly defined requirement for Western Balkan countries on their way to the European Union”, it concluded.

For Sanja Tosic (Young People Strengthening Club) young people are a great potential change to the region, according to her.
Our goal is to empower young people above different levels, themes and methods. We as an organization firmly believe that young people are the ones who can and will make a serious change in our” region.

The Western Balkan Fund is an intergovernmental initiative, founded by the Contractive Palaces (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.) This is Tirana's first regional subsidiary initiative. The main goal of the projects is to promote common values between citizens, civil society and institutions in the region and strengthen co-operation and contacts among people in the Western Balkans.

This moment symbolically begins the phase of implementing Second Call Projects for increased regional co-operation and contacts in the region. The winning projects will be part of a wider regional journey, involving more than 80 partnerships from across the region during the project's implementation phase.
A day earlier, representatives of the winning organisations from the FBP became familiar with each other to share their experiences in project cycle management and to adapt specific FBP personnel requirements for monitoring, reporting, deadlines and financial and budgetary issues.
The second call began on November 2, 2018, and applications were submitted by December 15th 2018.