Cooperation fund

The conference, held in Chisinau on 25-27 May, witnessed the participation of around 60 women entrepreneurs in the crafts field from Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova. Discussions focused on problems faced by women entrepreneurs, solutions and success stories. The gathering aimed at transferring knowledge and exchanging experiences and good practices on migration management in order to contribute to opening new job opportunities.

The second Annual Conference of the Western Balkans Migration Network under the titled „Migration in the Western Balkans: What do we know?“ was held in Sarajevo on 19-20 May.

The Forum was organised in Venice on 12 May at the premises of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe by the Trieste Contemporanea Committee.
 

On 7-10 April, the RomArchive - Roma Film Archive - Workshop & Film Festival took place in Budapest, Hungary. The event was organised in the framework of the long-term project RomArchive– Digital Archive of the Roma, which aims at becoming an internationally accessible virtual discursive space that makes the cultural heritage and history of the Roma visible and responds to recurring stereotypes by a counter-history told by the Roma themselves.
 

On 6-7 April the NATO Defense College Foundation organised the conference "Balkan Networks and Stability - Connecting Co-operative and human security" in Rome.
 

The Youth Forum on Refugees and Migrants in the New Media in South-East Europe and Central Europe, organised by the Association for Education Mladiinfo International, offered the opportunity to examine the process in which migrants and/or refugees are transformed from object to subject in media representation in South Eastern European and Central European countries.

The 5th edition of the popular science festival “Nauk nije bauk” was held in Niš, Serbia on 31- March – 1 April.
 

In the framework of the International Journalism Festival (Perugia, Italy, 5-9 April 2017), the CEI and SEEMO jointly organised the panel “Press freedom in south-east Europe” on Wednesday, 5 April.

Contributions were delivered by the Croatian journalist Zrinka Vrabec Mojzes, editor of the weekly Nacional, and the investigative journalists Besar Likmeta, from Albania, and Anna Babinets, from Ukraine.

The conference under the title “What holds the future for Europe’s migration and asylum?” took place in Belgrade on 2-3 March. The event was organised in the framework of the Project “SIMPLE migration practice. Sharing best knowledge and EU practice on integration of migrants and existing challenges in Balkan countries. Belgrade (Serbia)”. It brought together more than 30 experts from non-governmental and governmental organisations from 14 CEI Member States strongly affected by the ongoing "refugee crisis".

The international event of the “KineDok First Screens Conference 2017”, organised by the Institute of Documentary Film and hosted by the East Doc Platform, offered young filmmakers and film school students from 14 different CEI countries the opportunity to attend open lectures held by international film professionals and workshops based on case studies by renowned filmmakers.
 

Useful inputs for business starters and new insights on market trends were the key aspects of the Conference “SMEs – Business development and regional cooperation” held on in Belgrade on 3 March. Organised by the media production company Business Info Group (BIG), the event aimed at increasing  SME sector operations, cooperation between decision makers and SME representatives as well as at stimulating export growth. 

Representatives from state administrations and NGOs of 26 countries in North, Central and South Eastern Europe met in Stockholm on 8 – 9 December to share their experiences and knowledge on the reception of unaccompanied children and related necessary assistance. The event under the title “Promoting Good Practices in Protecting Unaccompanied Children and Finding Solutions for the Children, Families, Societies and States”, was organised and co-financed by the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the CEI Secretariat.

International experts and representatives met on 24 November, at a workshop on sanitary implications of the mass-movement of people. The event was held as a preliminary activity for the 10th Conference of the International Society for Health & Human Rights (ISHHR) under the title “Mental health, mass people displacement & ethnic minorities”, also taking place in Novi Sad next year.

Young scholars working on Central and South Eastern Europe in the fields of cultural studies, history, anthropology, media studies, political sciences, geography and sociology gathered from 17 different countries at the University for Applied Sciences in Vienna, on 1-2 December to attend the 5th Young Scholars Forum.
 

More than 300 participants - editors-in-chief, leading journalists, business professionals, civil society and academia as well as policy makers - attended this year’s South East Europe Media Forum (SEEMF) in Belgrade on 21-22 November.  
 

Representatives of OSCE participating States in Central and Eastern European countries (CEEs) as well as international organisations attended a three-day workshop on contemporary trends in labour migration and gender in CEEs, held in Chisinau on 23 November.
 

Leading energy specialists, professors and researchers as well as international bodies examined possible alternative energy visions and roadmaps within the workshop for alternative energy planners and modelling experts in Budapest on 3 November. The event aimed at supporting Central- and Eastern European countries (CEE) to develop sustainable energy systems and hence to initiate a research project about a common alternative energy scenario for the entire region of CEE and South Eastern Europe (SEE).

More than 4500 visitors and professionals participated in the events of the 20th edition of the Jihlava Documentary Film Festival on 24-29 October. This high number of participants was attracted by the distinguished programme of this major documentary film festival in Central and Eastern Europe, including 181 film screenings and more than 80 related events.

On 25-27 October, the 12th edition of the biannual International feed technology symposium in Novi Sad gathered researchers from main scientific institutions of Serbia and its neighboring countries, including nearly all CEI Member States, as well as from the United States of America. Besides providing a platform for scientific exchange between university and research institute members, the event also attracted many representatives from the industrial world, thus creating an important forum between and among the academia, producers as well as distributors.

The final activities of the project “Diversity is Super-City!” were held on 1 October in the form of a regional performance opening the final conference on “Different Cities-Happier Society”.

More than 60 participants from European cultural and public institutions exchanged views on human rights as well as on the inclusion and empowerment of minorities during the event held in Sremski Karlovci, Serbia. The speakers were representatives of the Regional Endeavour for Art, Culture and Health (REACH), the project organiser.