The venue was Baile Herculane resort from Romania. We invited 28 participants from 13 countries: EU+ Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. The idea of our project “Nice to meet you!” appeared during an informal meeting of youth NGOs from Europe and Balkan which took place during July 2009 in Poland, focused on how youth NGOs can bring an effective contribution in the field of human rights and promotion of European values. During discussions we reached 2 conclusions:

To see pictures and read more about our activity please click here: PBA "Nice to meet you" photo-blog

1. Having an overall perspective on the projects developed in the framework of Youth in Action program, we saw that the main projects are ran by and among European states, especially from central part of Europe. This is good, but we also saw that active NGOs from Balkan or EECA, that have experience and enthusiasm to join YiA projects are usually left aside, without being too much invited or involved in the projects developed every year. This could be because these states are not yet part of EU or it could be because of other reasons that we don’t know.

2. Balkan region and EECA states have a very rich history with many important events that changed the history. They are also very rich in terms of various cultures and minorities that brought their contribution to the shape of Europe. We think that there are many misconceptions about these regions of Europe, and many stereotypes. These aspects cause attitudes of rejection and discrimination, which affect the behavior of people who did not even visit these regions. Having these in mind, we decided that it would be a good idea if we organized an activity where we will bring together associations from Balkan, EECA and European Union, to speak about stereotypes, discrimination and human rights and try to organize projects for the future concerning these issues. In addition, by bringing them together we will emphasize common realities that link us, based on humanistic and European values and so we will fight against stereotypes and prejudices that usually surround the Balkan and EECA countries.

The Objectives of the program were:

1. To give the participants belonging to associations from EU, Balkan and EECA the possibility to meet and reflect on common issues regarding human rights and intercultural dialog

2. To discuss and set up the base for future projects within Youth in Action framework, during 2010

3. To create the conditions for new partnerships in the field of human rights, ethnic relations and intercultural dialog

4. To provide the participants the necessary tools in order to develop future projects within Youth in Action (to present the program, technical aspects necessary for writing and implementing a YiA project)

We kindly thank all of the participants for taking part in this project.