Overview

The political elite in the Western Balkan countries should clearly comprehend what member-state building means in practice. Parties – journalists, civil society representatives, academics, interest groups – that shape policy debates have a responsibility to constructively contribute to meeting these challenges.

A broad and shared understanding of the ''europeanisation'' process is paramount for the overcoming competing and conflicting agendas which frequently generate difficulties in building and sustaining reform coalitions. Therefore, the countries of this region should develop strategies, plans and priorities which are followed up by genuine domestic debates, and exercise ownership for achieving sustainable institution building and actual transformation.

The ownership of the European integration process cannot be gained by the countries and societies of the Western Balkans without a clear vision or a realistic and result-oriented understanding of the challenges, costs and opportunities of the genuine EU member state building. It also requires the integrated efforts of all layers of society to adopt European values.

Think and Link Regional Policy Programme

“THINK AND LINK” - Regional Policy Programme 2009/2010

“THINK AND LINK” - Regional Policy Programme 2010/2011

The eight month Programme is composed of the following activities:

Overview

The EUROPEAN STORY FUND is a new and innovative initiative that has been set up by The European Fund for the Balkans* to support the costs of producing stories on relevant European themes by the journalists from throughout the Western Balkans, as well as the journalists based in Brussels, reporting on WB issues. The produced stories are then shared and broadcasted by multiple media houses/TV stations from throughout the Western Balkans.
The Fund provides small grants to contribute to the additional costs of making stories for broadcasting on European issues relevant to the countries of the Western Balkans including:

How are other Candidate/applicant countries in Western Balkans managing the EU integration processes. How does the negotiation process work?
How did new EU member states manage key aspects of the EU integration process before they became members? What has it meant for ordinary citizens? What are the cost and benefits of the EU; did EU membership pay off?
How do EU member states manage issues like public administration reform, the environment, regional economic development?

The rules of the Story Fund are intended to be as flexible as possible.

The stories have to cover issues of interest to audiences in the Western Balkans on the European agenda.
There is no restriction on the content – except the basic conventions of professional journalism. Stories have to be interesting and accessible to general audience.

They can be shown on news programmes, or on current affairs/magazine programmes covering EU/foreign affairs on public or private TV stations in the Western Balkans

Background

This initiative aims to improve the public understanding of the European accession process and debate on the EU integration in the Western Balkans. It establishes a flexible co-operative network of working TV journalists from throughout the region, regarded as the best in their field that share their ideas and know how as well as join their resources in the story production and sharing process.

The initiative was initially proposed by the journalists themselves coming from different countries of the Western Balkans. It is an example of locally driven regional co-operation.

* The European Story Fund is at present co-financed by the Balkan Trust for Democracy

Main Activities

Fellowship Programme for
Policy Researchers from the Western Balkans

Objective

Contribute to the further capacity building and professional development of policy researchers from the region of the Western Balkans allowing them to build networks across Europe through paid visits to the other policy research institutions and think – tanks in the EU and other countries of the Western Balkans.