The Federal Deputy Prime-Minister and Minister of Culture and Sports of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr. Gavrilo Grahovac will welcome the participants in the second seminar of the Regional Program 2010 of the Bulgarian School of Politics led by Executive Director Ms. Irina Alexieva. Today Mr. Grahovac will present some successes of Bosnian public policies and federal projects targeted at youth.

This visit concludes two days of debate within “Challenges to Youth Engagement and Youth Policy Development in the Balkans: Good Practices and Lessons to Learn”. Over the course of several days, thirty-two participants form 8 Balkan countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia – gathered together to learn more about public policies targeted at youth and to share country experience in providing policy solutions to youth-related problems.

Discussions are focused on the practical implications of public policy-making with regard to issues such as youth employability, youth mobility, and greater involvement of young people with the political processes. Furthermore, participants discussed what makes greater accountability of public decision-makers to citizens possible in overcoming youth alienation from public life and democratic processes altogether.

This debate supplemented country presentations done within a simulation environment of a “Balkan Parliament”, during which country speakers introduced specific challenges and approaches to addressing them at national level. By the end of the seminar, participants will be working in cross-country groups to identify common shortages and gaps, and to try to design the skeleton of a white paper on Balkan youth policy.

The program also includes a meeting with Bulgarian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina H.E. Andrey Trunski. Ambassador Trunski is among the first Bulgarian diplomats involved in setting up a country mission in post-conflict Bosnia in the mid-1990s.