Radulović and RYCO: Important role of the Regional Youth Cooperation Office in building of friendship bridges

“Youth are the future of the Region, and their connecting brings new ideas and erase prejudices”, Foreign Minister Đorđe Radulović said at meeting with Head of the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) in Montenegro Edin Koljenović.

Minister Radulović stated that RYCO, as independent institutional mechanism that has been established by participants from six Western Balkans’ countries, has a great role in promoting not only joint work through various projects, but also friendship that youth from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia cherish in that way, simultaneously building bridges of trust for future generations.

Koljenović stressed that RYCO was established within Berlin process in 2016, so that idea got firm support from Germany, France and the EU, which considered that regional among young people must be one of the pillars of overall cooperation of Western Balkans’ states.

He added that RYCO, with support of important European partners, today has been realizing more than 12 regional programs, all the time focusing support to programs for cooperation, mobility and connection. He reminded that Montenegro recently overtook presiding over RYCO’s Steering Committee, that will last during 2021, while emphasizing that that is “important opportunity and chance for Montenegro to show that it is good partner with wishes for good regional cooperation”.

Collocutors agreed that promotion of bilateral and multilateral cooperation represents common goal, so that, having in mind future membership in the EU and good neighboring relations as important foreign policy priorities of Montenegro, paths are being connected under Berlin process.