The EU integration process is often seen as a political process where performance and progress are work-related or the will of the parties. In fact, it is a much more complex process that requires mostly the active involvement of each and every actor. EU negotiation process is expected to be opened in the Candidate Country by defining the country negotiating positions as conditioned by the existing social and economic context. That is why all social actors affected by the law harmonization process should be directly or indirectly included in the process of preparations of EU accession negotiations. The public faces difficulties to relate the integration discourse to large communities, people or individual themselves. Especially youth who will be the main affected category by the developments and politics of EU Integration. Therefore, it is very important to provide capacity building training for this target group. There should be systematic projects to maintain positive youth support by increasing information on the EU and generating realistic expectations of their inclusion in this process. Young people should be encouraged and supported to act as groups of positive pressure on the government, seeking the continuity and transparency of the reforms necessary for EU integration, but above all, they must be able to build their capacities through the EU mechanisms available to civil society, including youth.
Youth education and training are conditioned by the geographical proximity of their residence to other training and education institutions; their employment depends on the industrial and economic activities in their area. Public policies supporting youth should be designed and implemented to take into account the diversity and special profile of this group, the functioning of the labor market in Albania, and the legal reality of institutional actors in charge.
According to the EC Progress Report for Albania of 2016 with reference to Chapter 26: Education and culture, “Albania adopted the pre-university education strategy and started implementing the law on higher education. However, the quality of education needs to be evaluated and improved, especially since emigration by young, skilled people is high while job opportunities are lower”. Albanian youngsters and their youth representative associations should be previously informed on the available instruments, that allow them to pursue their involvement in the policy cycle by advocating for youth interest.
Main objective:
The initiative aims to provide tailored-made training on the policies and opportunities provided by the European Union in the field Youth. For this reason, EU Policy Hub will undertake a set of in-depth training on how youth can be active citizens in promoting the EU Integration, developing public dialogue and debate between youngsters, youth organizations on one hand and the state structures (local and central level) responsible on EU Integration.
Methodology:
Training sessions will be organized with groups of youth in 3 cities of Albania. The youngsters will be mainly engaged in school governance in their community. The groups will be composed of 20 youngsters, ideally gender balanced. The training encompasses three main modules based on a methodical approach that will improve the organizational and conceptual skills of youth in the field of EU Integration. The three training modules will take place from November 2018 to July 2019.
Expected results:
All this should be articulated in a simple, concrete, clear language based on related statistics/facts/studies that illustrate each topic in terms of local/national communities’ perspectives and focus. At the end of training, each youth groups in the three cities will have the necessary skill for understanding the EU integration. This initiative will have the direct assistance of EU Policy Hub experts and trainers in youth policy.