Development Office Newsletter: Issue N°2 2011

Balkans Beyond Borders - a success story of the College’s Leadership Development Programme!

The Development Office of the College of Europe is proud to announce that the 2nd Prize of the European Charlemagne Youth Prize 2011 has been awarded to the Balkans Beyond Borders project, an initiative which started with the “Southeast Europe and the EU – Leadership Development Programme ” (LDP), a joint cooperation between the College of Europe, the European Fund for the Balkans and the TRANSFUSE Association.

Each year since 2006, 30 highly motivated young professionals, coming mainly from the Western Balkans, are selected to take part in the 10-month programme.

The initial idea of the project was developed during the LDP two-week Summer Academy in 2009 and was further extended in 2010, when Alumni from 3 different LDP generations and 5 different countries decided to establish a Greek-based NGO in order to continue the project. Konstantinos Ntantinos (Greece), Adela Demetja (Albania), Igor De Gregorio (Italy), Vera Krikoni (Greece), Vaso Maltasoglou (Greece), Ntina Karydi (Greece), Monica Bucurenciu (Romania), Aber Babic (Bosnia & Herzegovina) and Manuela Brunero (Italy) are all working or finishing their masters studies, and are dedicating their time to develop this regional cooperation project.

Balkans Beyond Borders (BBB) became a non-profit organization with the purpose of promoting intercultural dialogue and innovative means of learning through film-making. BBB's flagship initiative is the organisation of an annual short-film festival having a different theme each year and taking place in different Balkan cities. The film festival is reinforced by a number of supporting activities throughout the year including exhibitions, workshops, cultural events and collaborations with other like-minded initiatives. This year the film festival will take place in Athens, on 20-22 June.

In 2011 the BBB project was nominated as the Greek National winner for the European Charlemagne Youth Prize 2011 , organised by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen and awarded for projects that foster a shared sense of European identity and integration among young people.

On the 31st of May, during the final ceremony in Aachen, the project was awarded the 2nd prize by the German MEP and leader of the European Parliament's Socialists and Democrats Group Martin Schulz. In his speech, MEP Schulz said that "Balkans Beyond Borders seeks to overcome borders by making films and raising awareness that all the Balkan countries will gain through regional co-operation. Balkans Beyond Borders has its finger on the pulse of the times with this year's theme of shooting short films on the crisis." The project will receive funding of 3000 EUR and BBB representatives will be invited to visit the European Parliament in the coming months.

"For us the prize and the funding received for the project are a great encouragement, coming at a crucial moment in the development of our project. We take these early achievements as signs that we are heading in the right direction with our idea. BBB aims not only to show that cooperation between the youth of the region is possible, but also that such cooperation brings added value to creative project ideas. BBB brings young people together, but it also brings different perspectives together, using film-making as means for showing the incredibly complex stories of the Balkans and pointing to the capacity of the region to change for the better." said Konstantinos Ntantinos, General Director of BBB, after having received the good news about the Charlemagne prize.

More information about the project: http://www.balkansbeyondborders.eu/film-festival/

Promotional video of the festival that is going to take place in Athens on 20-22 June 2011: http://vimeo.com/24392740

More information on the Leadership Development Programme: www.seeyoungleaders.org