Skopje: 4 December 2009
The Leadership Development Programme - Group 4 “National Identities, Minority Rights and EU Integration” organized a panel discussion and workshop “EU – Umbrella of Different Nationalities” in Skopje, 4 December 2009.
This panel discussion and workshop were held at the EU Info Centre – Delegation of the European Commission in Skopje and the main aim was raising the awareness about different national identities and minority rights in the participating countries.
The first part of the event was a panel discussion, in which the issue of different ethnic minorities in the SEE countries was discussed by two speakers, H.E Erwan Fouere – Special Representative of the European Union and Head of the Delegation of the European Union in the Republic of Macedonia and Ms. Marija Risteska – Public Policy Analyst, Center for Research and Policy Making. The panel was opened by Ms. Ahu Yigit, LDP 2009/10 participant from Turkey and moderated by Ms. Mirjana Gjorgjevska, PR Consultant - Center for Non-formal Education TRIAGOLNIK.
H.E Erwan Fouere gave short evaluation of the Progress Reports and talked about the criteria that are asked from the candidate and potential candidate countries. He stressed the importance of the national identities and minority rights by saying that the heart of the EU integration is issue of ethnic minorities. Ms. Marija Risteska talked about national identities and minority rights in the SEE and about the importance of treating all national and ethnic minorities equally.
The second part of the event included interactive workshop – simulation game “I (am) like you” with 20 young participants from the region. Moderator of the simulation was Ms. Mirjana Gjorgjevska, PR Consultant - Center for Non-formal Education TRIAGOLNIK. The aim of this game was to enable the young participants to understand the meaning of being a minority group and respecting each other’s ethnic identities. Through simulation participants identified strategies for conflict resolution and tried to make a link to reality in minority context.
The event was visited not only by young participants of the workshop but by various representatives of media. Special guests were participants of all four editions of the Leadership Development Programme from Skopje, members of the LDP Alumni Network.
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