LDP 6 – “Europe for Your Thoughts” presented in Novi Sad

Members of group project - Serbia presented the book “Europe for Your Thoughts” in Novi Sad, on 9th of March. The main activity of the project was collecting short stories on the topic of EU integration, culture and values. Stories were written by high school students coming from throughout the Southeast Europe. The best 20 stories were selected and published in “Europe for Your Thoughts”. The book was presented in Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj high school in front of 130 guests. The introductory speech was made by Luca Kadar, Head of Information, Communication and Press, EU Delegation in Serbia. Special guest was Mirjana Bobic Mojsilovic, writer, who also wrote an introduction for book concluding with words: “Will the Europe be able to sing, like our kids sang about Europe?” The winner of the first prize is Jovana Janjic, student of High school of Economics in Cacak. What the group members said about the goals: “We aim to stimulate young people into thinking about this process that is technical and administrative on the surface, but a societal and transitional in its core. We want to have a cross-section view of what the young people in the region think about the EU integration process, not through essays or academic papers, but through something as personal and as creative as short stories. The purpose of our project is raising awareness about the ways in which youth in the region is affected by and reacts to the European integration process. By creatively approaching their own society and culture in an international context, young people will focus on their cultural identity which will help in understanding the significance of European integration as well as overcoming the obstacles on the way to the European unity. At the same time, this project will give people from the rest of the Europe useful insight into the rich variety of Western Balkans cultural heritage and traditions, which are consisting part of European cultural identity.” Darija Maric (Serbia) Ružica Jurcevic (Croatia) Ada Ramaj (Albania) Svetlana Cosovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Darko Soldat (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Marko Sošic (Montenegro)