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What topic for the next AER Equal Opportunities conference?

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The AER Equal Opportunities Group is preparing its next move. What are the most relevant issues to address this year? What are the hot topics on the agenda of your region? We want your input!  In recognition of this topic’s importance within AER’s work, the Equal Opportunities Group (EOG) has worked on a number of activities for this year’s agenda with the aim of ensuring that these issues are mainstreamed across the entire organisation.

Mrs Ana Tomanova Makanova – Vice-President of Equal Opportunities and Integration and Chair of the AER Equal Opportunities Group- has stated that “equal opportunities should not only cover gender issues, but also promote and strengthen respect for Human Rights, democracy and rule of law, in parallel with the destination of efforts to work on women empowerment in the business sector, and to structure a common base for combating discrimination in today’s Europe.”

On 14 April 2016, AER organised the Equal Opportunities Forum on “Women in Emergency situations” in Timis County (RO) in the framework of the Committees’ spring plenary meetings, gathering around 50 participants from AER member regions, to speak about European experiences, solutions and regional perspectives on this hot topic. One of the several decisions adopted during this Forum was to organise a Conference addressing important issues with regards to equal opportunities in the European social panorama with the aim of sparking the debate between member regions to come up with conclusions on the pressing issues that the majority of the members are facing today – such as Human Rights, migration and equal opportunities for all citizens- also considering a discussion on where is the EU and how is the EU regulating these relevant subjects.

The Equal Opportunities Group now invites all member regions to give their preferred topic for the Conference that will take place in Vienna on 24 October 2016. If you have any ideas, please email Sanja Šifliš, coordinator of the EOG.

The EOG would also like to invite all interested regions to become a member of the Group and contribute in the shaping of this important portfolio within AER.

 

 

 

 

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The regional perspective on “Women in emergency situations”

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On 14 April 2016 AER organised the Equal Opportunities Forum on “Women in Emergency situations” in Timis County (RO) in the framework of the Committees’ spring plenary meetings. The Forum gathered around 50 participants from AER member regions, to speak about European experiences, solutions and the regional perspective on this hot topic.

As the European Parliament has urged the European Commission to deliver a new communication strategy on gender equality and women’s rights for 2016-2020, the member regions of AER aimed to define common messages based on their diverse and vast knowledge, and also on their experiences on equal opportunities, on women’s rights.

AER vice-president for Equal Opportunities and Inclusion, Mrs Ana Tomanova Makanova, chaired the Forum and spoke about Voivodina’s experience together with Danca Todorov, Provincial Ombudsman for gender equality whose lead topic was “Gender Equality & Disaster Risk Reduction”.  Among the conclusions of this project supported by UN Women in 2015, it was noted that there is no practice of a quick gender-sensitive needs assessment of the population, that gender differences are mostly manifested in the manner of information about the disaster, as well as in skills, and that participation of women and other CSOs would contribute to a better risk, needs and capacities assessment, as well as data collection regarding the population’s vulnerability.

Monika Laurinaviciute-Kocmann from the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) shared with us the general position of women in Europe and the EIGE work.

Kenneth Johannesson from Värmland (SE) shared his regions project “A handbook for regional cooperation in Värmland”, designed to combat intimate partner violence against women. He stressed the importance of keeping in mind the definition of equal opportunities: “Women and men have the same power to shape the society and their lives. This calls for same possibilities, rights and obligations in all areas of life.”

Lenica Bucur from Alba County Council (RO) talked about domestic violence, and the social services developed in Alba County, according to Romanian legislation, in order to prevent and combat domestic violence, with a focus on specialised services developed by Cugir Town to protect victims of domestic violence.

The Forum was also the stage of a lively discussion and an opportunity to highlight a key message of the Sendai Declaration (outcome and declaration of the Heads of State and Government, ministers and delegates who participated in the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction) that “Catastrophes don’t discriminate, society does!”

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Women Entrepreneurship Academy

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Discover the good Equal Opportunities idea of the week!

At the initiative of AER Vice President for Equal Opportunities, Anna Tomanova Makanova, members of the AER executive board met representatives from the Women Entrepreneurship Academy in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina on March 16, 2016. The meeting took place in Backi Petrovac, a small municipality with a large Slovak minority, located in close vicinity to Novi Sad, the second largest region in Serbia.

The Academy is an NGO, which has, since 2006, implemented over 19 national and international projects; trained more than 1800 women and girls and has become a partner to 20 municipalities in Serbia and abroad. The Academy’s focus is on economic empowerment of women. They assist girls and women to start up and develop their own businesses through a certified education program. The Academy helps women to improve their professional and personal skills to become competitive and self-confident actors of local change.

They also support local governments in order to integrate gender equality standards in key policy legal acts, documents, strategies, budgets, and work with local executive and legislative bodies to help them become municipalities attractive for families and businesses. The academy strongly advocates gender responsive business environments and deeply supports bridging the gap between business, gender and education.

Their added value lies in providing new and feasible business ideas that may, beside pleasure, bring income. Here are two example of their initiatives:  creative welding, and traditional motifs in contemporary fashion designs.

The NGO is looking for partners in Europe to work together to improve quality of life by making gender equality an everyday reality.


Contact person: Jana Zabunov,
Director of
Women’s Entrepreneurship Academy
[email protected],
www.ewa.org.rs,
+381-63-528-226

 

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Meet Ana Tomanova Makanova, AER Vice-President for Equal Opportunities and Inclusion

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After four year smartly spent at raising awareness on the topics of equal opportunities, Monica Carlsson (Norrbotten-SE) passed on the baton to Ana Tomanova Makanova (Vojvodina-SR) who was unanimously elected by the General Assembly on 1 December as the new AER Vice-President for Equal Opportunities and Inclusion:

Equal opportunities and inclusion has been an important topic at AER for many years and I am honored to take over this important portfolio and thank the AER members for trusting me with such a crucial issue. I have been closely following the work of my predecessors, especially Ms. Monica Carlsson and look forward to furthering the cause she and all others before her have so passionately fortified.

The region of Vojvodina is particularly well placed to speak on behalf of regions in the matter of equal opportunities and inclusion as we have extended experience in this field. We have 6 official languages in use, we have 26 national minorities in Vojvodina, we have specially designed Strategies for the Roma inclusion, women in politics are equally represented as men and hold high decision making positions, we have 20 National Councils of national minorities, our regional broadcasting network has a program in 10 languages, …

My region has been an active member of the network since 2002, hosting numerous events and taking part in different programs and activities. We confirm our full engagement by taking part of the Bureau and now the Executive Board of the organisation.

Equal opportunities should be area where equal opportunities are leading value. My activities will address the strengthening respect of the human rights, democracy, and role of law; empowerment of women in business sector, especially in rural areas; and structuring common base for combating discrimination in today’s Europe.

Looking forward to our fruitful cooperation in future within the AER network.

Ana Tomanova Makanova
AER Vice-President Equal Opportunities and Inclusion

Contact for the Vice-President on :
Sanja Šifliš
+381 21 487 44 31

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Monica Carlsson passes on the baton for Equal Opportunities & Inclusion

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Ms Monica Carlsson, Norrbotten (SE), addresses AER members for the last time in her capacity as VP for Equal Opportunities & Inclusion. She has been active in the organization for 10 years and highlights AERs crucial role for bringing people together to learn and share experiences and act for regional development. She also stresses AERs capacity to act as a peace project building fruitful and long-standing relations.

The activities and actions of the past year have focused on gender equality and Roma inclusion. Both remain high on the political agenda and need to be pursued in the future. One lesson learnt is that a successful inclusion of the Roma community is only possible by including the Roma population and their representatives in the discussions and policy-making.

Strengthening human rights and social inclusion has become even more relevant during the recent months of increased migration flow. Free secure movement and the right to asylum is the foundation to equal opportunities across Europe and must be guaranteed. The next major challenge in Europe is to prevent discrimination and segregation between people. Successful integration and inclusion of migrants is crucial and will strengthen communities, socially and economically. Ms Carlsson adds that “AER regions should do more together to revitalize democracy, prevent segregation and create equal opportunities in the future” She concludes her intervention by wishing the organization “best of luck and joy for the future”.

Ms Ana Tomanova Makanova from Vojvodina (RS) has just been elected to take over the portfolio of Equal Opportunities and Inclusion and to continue in the tracks set out by her predecessor.

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Combating gender stereotyping and sexism in the media

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The Council of Europe’s Gender Equality Commission held its 7th meeting in Strasbourg from 15-17 April 2015. High on the agenda was the implementation of the Gender Equality Strategy 2014-2017 with the 2014 Annual Report. The Commission also discussed:

  • combating gender stereotyping and sexism in the media
  • promoting an education free from gender stereotypes
  • women’s access to Justice

All information is accession on the COE’s webpage

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Women’s Economic Empowerment and Sustainable Development

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1 March 2015, Riga – Women’s Economic Empowerment: Regions have their say! Gender Equality has been a key priority within the Assembly of European Regions (AER) for many years – a working group on Gender Equality was created in the late 1990s. The AER Standing Committee on Equal Opportunities was created by a decision of the AER General Assembly on 26 November 2009. AER is committed to empowering its members to guarantee equal opportunities for each and every one of their citizens. Within the AER structure, we promote gender parity in the various AER organs – this principle is promoted within the AER statutes and rules of procedure. Across AER, we encourage regions to acknowledge and implement the equal opportunities perspective in all policy areas. Women entrepreneurship & women’s employment opportunities is one of these policy areas. Many examples of best practices exist at regional level and can inspire national policies. To discuss these issues AER delegate, Mr Kenneth Johannesson, County Council Councillor, Värmland, was present at the Riga event.

The high-level political event has been organized in Riga by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the European Commission, the Latvian government, and in close cooperation with civil society, specially women’s movement and private sector to highlight the importance of women and girls as central actors in moving towards sustainable development and to combine proposals for unlocking women’s full economic potential in context of post-2015 framework.

The event took place in March – the thematic month dedicated to women and girls during the European Year for Development.

For pictures, videos, and more information, please click here.

2015-03-01-Riga-chair-summary.pdf
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AER Bureau and General Assembly

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The main annual meeting of AER attracted 300 members in Wroclaw (Dolnoslaskie–PL). Beside the statutory matters including the presentation of all AER activities or the changes to the rules of procedure, the Bureau, extra-ordinary and ordinary General Assembly have discussed the results of the European elections and highlighted equal opportunities.

Two days after the European Parliament election results were proclaimed, four rapporteurs representing the geographic and political diversity of our Assembly, led the discussion about the messages AER wanted to convey to the new Parliament. AER positions on cohesion policy, youth employment, demographic change, economic subsidiarity and innovation were emphasized.

AER will now use its lobbying power, including some of our members who were elected MEPs, to make sure these messages, which have been gathered in the “Dolnoslaskie political statement” and sent to all our institutional contacts, will be taken into account by the EU legislative chamber.

aer-eigeFinally AER also chose to put equal opportunities at the centre of its GA discussion. Ms Therese Murphy from the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) presented the state of play in Europe and the concrete actions regions can take to reduce these unacceptable inequalities. Monica Carlsson, AER Vice President for Equal Opportunity, took that opportunity to announce that a partnership is being built with EIGE.

We would like to thank our host, the region of Dolnoslaskie, for their kind welcome and take this opportunity to highlight a project that they are leading with our partner organisation ALDA, to set up a local democracy agency in Dnipropetrovsk (UA). In light of the current difficulties in the country, and AER’s active engagement in voicing the interest of regions in Ukraine, we invite interested members to contact Dolnoslaskie to support this initiative.

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Dolnoslaskie Political Statement

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AER proposes a new deal to the European Parliament: further subsidiarity for a better Europe, focused on the citizens and closer to their needs

Statement adopted at the AER General Assembly in Wroclaw, on 28 May 2014.
Rapporteurs: Anna Magyar (Csongrad-HU), Jean-Luc Vanraes (Bruxelles-Capitale-BE), Rodrigo Oliveira ( Açores-PT) and Johan Edstav (Uppsala-SE)

Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie (PL), 28 May 2014

With stronger powers granted to the European Parliament thanks to the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union (EU) elections 2014 are the most important elections to date. The Assembly of European Regions (AER) wishes to congratulate the newly elected and re-elected MEPs and call upon them to use the European grass root expertise of the regional level.

AER notes the low turnout of European voters and the increased tendency towards eurosceptic parties. We hope that, together with the European Parliament, other EU institutions and member states we can continue building a better Europe based on democracy, Human Rights and Gender Equality. AER encourages the Parliament and the Commission to continue their collaborative work across wider Europe as well as with its neighbouring regions. It is our duty to help citizens feel European and make clear to them how Europe improves their lives. We realise that a considerable share of European voters supports a strong cooperation in the framework of the EU. We, as regional politicians, are in constant dialogue with citizens in every parcel of the European territory. We want a better Europe, a Europe focused on what matters to citizens and closer to their needs. This is why subsidiarity must be key in the European decision making process and the priority must be given to the following issues:

– Use the regional expertise to design cohesion policies. Regions are at the forefront of the citizens’ need. They must therefore be involved, from the very beginning, in the drafting of partnership agreements and operational programmes for a social, territorial and inclusive regional policy.

– Defend Youth employment at regional level. AER calls for the EU to acknowledge the true added value of regional programmes for youth mobility and employment. Every year, the AER’s Eurodyssey Programme sends hundreds of young women and men across wider Europe to gain professional experience after their studies, and help them both equally enter the European labour market. This success story must be supported.

– Help regions face European demographic change. Europe is growing older which makes active and healthy ageing a priority. An inclusive and intergenerational approach is needed. The regions are pioneers in making and implementing user-based, efficient solutions. They should be supported in this. AER, as a forum for exchange of knowledge and best practices, is the right EU partner in this field.

– Support an effective economic subsidiarity. 99% of European Enterprises are SMEs, that is to say 23 million enterprises. At a time when globalisation of markets has changed the rules, the EU must focus on new opportunities and turn to its regions and SMEs to make the most of the benefits of this evolution. In the framework of the EU ‘Business Agenda 2014-2019’, decentralisation is a key factor when unlocking potential for competitiveness: the Europe 2020 goals can only be reached with the participation of regions.

– Reinforce regions’ role in innovation. Our regions are host to some of the best universities and research centres in the world. Europe’s role as a world economic power comes from high quality and high tech sustainable products and services. We therefore urge you to put regions at the centre of the Horizon 2020 programme. After the end of the “regions of knowledge” programme, research and innovation need to return concretely to the regional policy agenda.

Drafted by AER secretariat, 23/05/2014
Revised by the AER Bureau, 27/05/2014
Revised by the AER General Assembly, 28/05/2014

Download the political statement

For more information: [email protected]

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Next AER Summer Academy (SA) well on track

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Novi Sad and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (RS) are ready to welcome 120 participants from 17 to 23 August 2014 to discuss and experience “Multicultural, Multiethnic and Multilingual regions – Regional diversity for socio-economic growth”. This is the conclusion of the SA’s Orginising Committee meeting, held on 27 March in Novi Sad.

During the SA week, as in previous years, the format of the sessions will alternate between plenaries, key lectures and workshops. Study visits will exemplify and enhance the work sessions allowing participants to get actively involved and to make quite literally hands-on contributions.

The detailed programme, including the list of planned speakers and contributors, will be finalised in the next weeks and are due to be released upon opening of registrations at the beginning of May. Get a first glimpse here.

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AER in Poland: Regions gathering to stimulate European growth

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Michèle Sabban, President of the Assembly of European Regions (AER), will visit Poland at the occasion of the 22nd European Economic Forum, taking place from 4 to 6 September in Krynica-Zdroj. AER is a partner of the Institute for Eastern Studies, an organiser of this Forum gathering each year over 2000 guests from 60 countries, including EU representatives, Prime Ministers, Presidents and representatives from private companies.

Highlights:

Tuesday 4 September

  • Meeting with the Presidents of the Polish regions. Michèle Sabban will go with them through the common projects which can be carried out in Europe by the regions, mainly in the field of economic development.
  • Intervention in the debate “Yes, they can! Women in the Struggle for Freedom, Democracy, Peace and Tranquility”, together with Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and Bernadette Segol, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation.

Wednesday 5 September

  • Private meeting with Elzbieta Bienkowska, Polish Minister for Regional Development. They will discuss the state of play of negotiations regarding the next EU cohesion policy and the challenges of the EU’s Eastern Partnership, most notably in the framework of interregional cooperation. They will also talk about AER’s action in Tunisia, the situation of which is being closely followed by European citizens and governments.
  • Mrs Bienkowska and Sabban will open the Forum of the Regions, together with Marek Sowa, Marshal of the Małopolskie Region and Zygmunt Berdychowski, Chairman of the European Economic Forum, and will take part in the debate dedicated to “Regional Policy as a Factor of Integrated Development Within Europe 2020 Strategy”.

Link to the programme : www.forum-ekonomiczne.pl/vi-forum-regionow/program/

NEXT EVENTS IN THE AGENDA OF AER PRESIDENT:

13-14 September: Meeting in Strasbourg (F) and intervention on the economic crisis, on the occasion of the General Meeting of Associations of local and regional authorities of the Council of Europe member countries.
21-22 September: AER Crisis Summit: “Faced with the crisis: The Regions at Europe’s bedside” in Pescara, Abruzzo (I).

The Assembly of European Regions (AER – aer.eu) is the largest independent network of regions in wider Europe. Bringing together more than 250 regions from 35 countries and 16 interregional organizations, AER is the political voice of its members and a forum for interregional co-operation.

For more information: [email protected]

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One year after the revolution, European regions confirm their support to the regions of Tunisia

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Tunis (TN), 14 June 2012

Michèle Sabban, President of the Assembly of European Regions (AER), has placed training at the heart of her three-day official visit to Tunisia, the third since the beginning of the Jasmine Revolution.

During a meeting with Moustapha Ben Jaafar, President of the National Constituent Assembly, she emphasized the importance of training for young people as a means of fighting against unemployment, encourage the return of growth and ensure the sustainability of democratic developments resulting from the revolution. “Since its creation, the Assembly of European Regions has made it a priority to support young people, especially non-graduates, in their integration into the labor market.” stressed Michele Sabban.

“The current tensions spanning Tunisia should not stop us from considering its great potentials, its youth being one of them,”she added. “The European regions have a lot to offer the Tunisian authorities and civil society, especially its young trainee exchange programme, and AER intends to maintain its presence on the ground.”

President Ben Jaafar, who praised AER’s early commitment to Tunisia, said that in 2011 the country experienced its first negative growth and training was essential to boost employment in 2012. Among the sectors mentioned, the training of public service executives has emerged as a priority to ensure a reliable economic environment and a successful decentralization. AER has already contributed its expertise on this topic, and intends to continue its work with the support of the European Union delegation in Tunisia.

The importance of tourism, which accounts for nearly 6.5% of Tunisia’s GDP, was also discussed. The Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) has entrusted AER’s President with a report on sustainable tourism. Today Mrs Sabban is meeting the Tunisian Minister of Tourism in order to address the needs of Tunisia’s regions in this field.

Training of women candidates was at the heart of the last visit by AER’s delegation in Tunis in September 2011. During a meeting with the Chief of Staff of the Minister of Women, Michèle Sabban supported the Minister’s efforts to enhance the place of women’s personal status in the constitution, while recalling that they had joined AER’s fight for gender equality in Europe.

Today Michèle Sabban is equally meeting with Touhami Abdouli, Minister of European Affairs, and Hamadi Jebali, the Head of the Tunisian government, while on Friday 15 June she will participate in a forum dedicated to foreign investments in Tunisia.

The Assembly of European Regions (AER – aer.eu) is the largest independent network of regions in wider Europe. Bringing together more than 250 regions from 35 countries and 16 interregional organisations, AER is the political voice of its members and a forum for interregional co-operation.

For more information: [email protected]

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Equality for all is everybody’s business

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Vienna (A), 9 May 2012

9 May is Europe Day. It is on the 9th of May 1950 that Robert Schuman proposed to create a democratic and peaceful Europe, paving the way to European integration. But no integration, no peaceful relations would be possible without ensuring that equal opportunities for all are in place.

62 years later, we can only regret that equality has not fully come into reality. Despite some progress, the list of potential discrimination is unfortunately still long, from people with disabilities, to integration of minorities or gender equality. This is the reason why the Assembly of European Regions (AER) organised, in the City of Vienna, known for having high anti-discrimination standards, a conference on ‘Equality for all’. Hande Özsan Bozatli, President of AER’s Committee ‘Culture, Education, Youth and International cooperation’, Monica Carlsson, President of AER’s standing Committee ‘Equal opportunities’ and Olov Oskarsson, President of AER’s Youth Regional Network welcomed 80 politicians, experts and young people to share their experience on inequalities and discriminations.

After a session dedicated to sharing good practices introduced by the City of Vienna (A), the Regions of Dolnoslaskie (PL), Jönköping (S), Norrbotten (S) and Wallonie (B), participants came to the conclusion that their duty is twofold. On one hand, they ask for progressive legislation to be introduced throughout Europe and first and foremost to find an agreement on the European directive on anti-discrimination. On the other hand, they recognize that legislation is not enough: indeed, even if a number of charters and laws already exist, they mean nothing without citizens’ buy-in. AER members are therefore determined to fight those two battles back home, and to keep everyone’s minds open.

Mrs Özsan Bozatli took the opportunity to have a meeting with the Austrian Secretary of State for Integration, Mr Sebastian Kurz. “I was particularly interested by the fact that Austrian immigration action plan aims at associating regions and cities in its integration policy. The examples of good practices we heard during our meeting and the Austrian policy confirm that if we want to bring social inclusion into reality, we have to make it everyone’s business.” she stated.

The Assembly of European Regions (AER – aer.eu) is the largest independent network of regions in wider Europe. Bringing together more than 250 regions from 35 countries and 16 interregional organisations, AER is the political voice of its members and a forum for interregional co-operation.

For more information: [email protected]

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A brand new AER project ‘Promoting Youth Employment’ (PYE) Step one: Vojvodina

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Novi Sad, Vojvodina (SRB), 14 September 2011

Vojvodina is the first region to host the Assembly of European Regions’ (AER) Peer Review on youth employment. During the opening of this one-week session, Ms Maja Sedlarevic, Vice-President of the Assembly of AP Vojvodina, highlighted the importance of an open-minded approach when a region is been reviewed. “For us, this peer review is an excellent tool to better understand both our strengths and challenges, to better meet the European standards related to youth employment and, most of all, to learn what could be improved and how. I am convinced that this joint effort with the AER experts will bring us concrete recommendations as we, for sure in the future, will make to our partners”, she concluded.

Vojvodina overview
With approximately 2 million inhabitants, 300 000 of which are young people, this region’s economy picked up in 2010 due to strong exports and the adoption of timely and appropriate employment measures. However, nearly 40% of young people do not complete secondary education, whereas those who intend to continue their studies have significant difficulties in finding employment in their field of specialisation. The region has tried to confront this problem by investing in inclusive internship schemes with private companies and by promoting education accessible to all. Avoiding the mismatch of skills would be far easier if secondary schools advised their students on what skills the labour market is in need of.

In order to help Vojvodina in creating the region’s first strategy for youth employment, AER experts were invited to proactively interview various regional and national Serbian stakeholders, representatives from educational institutions, youth organisations and employment centres.

First observations by the review team
1. State dependence: approximately 70% of the population works for the State, or depends from it. There is a lack of investment from private companies and one of the IMF measures is precisely to avoid new contracts in the public sector.
2. Youth employment policy: the cooperation between the region’s ministries for both youth and employment is key to improve young people’s situation on the labour market.
3. Secondary schools reform: there should be a better link between schools, universities, public and private sectors, and civil society. One of the ideas discussed was to have in each school an officer in charge of establishing the bridge with the other parts and to inform students of the real opportunities in the market.
4. Brain drain: massive emigration is not a specific problem for this region, however it still remains a danger to be conscious of.
5. What skills are mostly needed in this region? This question needs to be tackled if the region is to improve young people’s preparation for the transition to the labour market.

The list of recommendations drafted by AER experts will lead to Vojvodina’s action plan on youth employment; its concrete outcomes will be presented in May 2012 in Brussels. By then, AER will have organised three more peer reviews: 20 to 24 November in Açores (P), 30 January to 3 February 2012 in Krapina Zagorje (HR) and in Hampshire (UK) from the 26 to 30 March 2012.

Members of AER experts team:
Zorana Kacanski – Assembly of AP of Vojvodina, Department for Interregional Cooperation
Vesna Karmenorovic – Assembly of AP of Vojvodina, Advisor for Employment issues at the Provincial Secretariat for Labor, Employment and Gender Equality, Sector for Employment.
Miguel Mares Garces, President of Valencia Regional Local Development Agencies Association
Goran Vukmanic, Croatian Employment Service, Regional Office Krapina Zagorje (HR)
Débora Pavao, Regional Directorate of Youth, Açores (P)
Francis Pyke, Freelance researcher, from Manchester (UK)

For more information about PYE:
Financed by the European Commission in the framework of PROGRESS, a programme established to support financially the implementation of the EU objectives in employment, social affairs and equal opportunities, PYE’s main goal is to support young people’s access to jobs through a set of innovative tools.

  

For more information: [email protected]

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AER and the Tunisian Ministry for Women organize a seminar for Tunisian women standing for election

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Strasbourg (F), 1st September 2011

The Assembly of European Regions (AER) has established close ties with Tunisia since the events that took place in the beginning of the year and strongly supports the challenge the country has set itself in instituting the principle of gender parity for the next election of a constituent Assembly on 23rd October. As gender equality has constituted a pillars of AER’s action for several years, Mrs Michèle Sabban, AER President, has joined forces with Mrs Lilia Labidi, Tunisian Minister of Women’s Affairs, to offer AER’s experience to the Tunisian authorities. Together, they have decided to organise a training seminar for Tunisian female candidates.

In order to ensure that the principle of gender parity is fully respected in practice, this seminar aims to help Tunisian women fully and actively engage in the election campaigns and allow for them to share their experiences with their European counterparts, as several elected representatives of European regions will accompany Mrs. Michèle Sabban on this visit. Around 60 participants are expected to take part in the seminars held in Tunis on the 15th and 16th September, among which are renowned Tunisian militants Sihem Ben Sedrine and Radhia Nasraoui.

The programme in detail:
Getting started and getting engaged: the principle of gender equality put to the test of political engagement – What exactly does ‘gender parity’ mean? How do you become a candidate? How do you develop a support base and networks? What is the procedure to follow?
Confronting difficulties: overcoming resistance to change – Once you are an official candidate, you must then make sure you are a credible candidate with a real chance of winning.. How to earn a place within the constituency? How to set up a campaign and communicate with electors? What challenges should you expect and how to overcome them?
Engaging in public life as a woman: volunteering, NGOs and human rights, citizenship – Becoming an elected representative is not the only way to contribute to social and political life. This session will explore the obligations and opportunities deriving from the concept of citizenship and the ways in which women can contribute to associations such as NGOs.

Through this targeted training, AER hopes to contribute to increasing Tunisian women’s engagement in politics, but also to incite electors to seize the symbol of democracy that is the right to vote.

For more information: [email protected]

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