Participation to the mentoring conference “Unity through Mobility”

On 19 March 2010, Mr. Gledis Gjipali, Executive Director and Ms. Baisa Sefa, Junior Researcher at EMA took part in the first meeting of the project “Unity through Mobility” held in Brussels, which aimed to set up a mentoring system between EMI National Councils. This mentoring project was initiated by the European Movement International and it involves 12 EMI National Councils operating in Albania, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy and Slovenia.

In framework of this initiative inside this network, more developed councils will play the role of “mentor” offering their support and experience to increase the capacity for the “less developed” councils.

The aim of this meeting was to revitalize and strength the solidarity between the national councils’ network, which will serve as a starting step towards join initiatives. The meeting was welcomed by Ms Sophie Beernaerts, Head of Unit in DG Communication, which presented the Citizens for Europe Programme renovated after the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty. She urged the participating countries to develop sustainable partnerships and to inspire the European Commission in its shaping of the post-2013 programme.

During the meeting, a special attention was paid to the presentation of the each National Council, offering the overall description on the way of organizing, functioning, the main areas where they are focused and the target groups. European Movement Albania was presented by the Executive Director, Mr. Gledis Gjipali. He stressed out the mission of EMA as a think tank and 4 programmatic areas in which it works such as: Policy Researcher and advocacy, Public debate and policy forums, Monitoring activities, capacity building and networking. Mr. Gjipali stressed out the main projects implemented by EMA, emphasizing the beneficiaries groups as well as the web pages. After the presentation of the each National Council, EMI has proposed the following pairs of mentor-mentorees, basing on the common interest and the wish to work together:

Albania-Denmark
Estonia-Finland
Italy-Germany
France-Slovenia
Greece-Ireland
Hungary-Belgium

The meeting was followed by a workshop session where each of the pairs discussed on the future steps in the framework of this mentoring project. Denmark as EMA’s mentor offered its support to improve EMA’s capacities. It expressed the willingness to cooperate in the future and to develop join projects; by sharing experiences and learning from each other best practices. Furthermore, to make this cooperation as much as fruitful  representatives of Danmark and Albania put duties and a timetable between them for the coming periods.