TIRANA – The winner of the “Open Call for Young Designers: 2021 Western Balkans Berlin Summit Logo Competition” is a young designer from Albania: Mr Dei Hasko. He received the prize at the German Embassy in Tirana on Friday, 28 May 2021. The prize was presented to the winner by RYCO Secretary General Mr Albert Hani and German Minister of State for Europe Mr Michael Roth.
During the awarding ceremony, Mr Roth emphasized that young people can change the Western Balkans with their creative ideas and added that RYCO is an important mechanism that connects youth of the region and provides them with new opportunities.
RYCO Secretary General underlined that the applications submitted for the Berlin Summit Logo Competition represent the vision of youth of the region and emphasized the importance of bringing them closer together.
The winner of the competition Mr Hasko expressed his gratitude to the organizers and highlighted the importance of a connected Western Balkans where young people thrive with their creative ideas.
The logo competition was opened from 24 March to 7 April 2021 and invited young people (from 18 to 30 years old) from the Western Balkans to design the logo of this year’s Western Balkans Berlin Process Summit which will be hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel this summer.
Choosing the best design was not an easy task since almost 170 young designers submitted more than 300 entries to the competition. The selection committee composed of the Youth Representatives in the RYCO Governing Board accompanied by the validation of the German Government awarded the three best entries.
The awarding ceremonies for the second and the third prize winners will take place at the premises of the German embassies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia in the upcoming days and will be attended by the awarded young designers, representatives of the German Government and RYCO.
The Berlin Process was initiated by the German government to promote regional cooperation of the Western Balkans and support the EU’s enlargement policy. Its first summit was held on 28 August 2014 in Berlin. It was followed by summits in Vienna (2015), Paris (2016), Trieste (2017), London (2018), Poznan (2019) and Sofia (2020).
The Berlin Process fosters connectivity in the region, through economic cooperation but not only: One of the most tangible results of the Berlin Process is the establishment of the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO). The Agreement on the Establishment of RYCO was signed by the six Western Balkan Prime Ministers during the Paris Summit on 4 July 2016.
© Photos: German Embassy in Tirana