PODGORICA – The thirteenth RYCO Governing Board Meeting was the first meeting organized under the Chairmanship of Montenegro this year, and took place in Podgorica from 20 to 22 April 2021. The meeting was organized in a hybrid format, providing members of the Governing Board also with the possibility of attending online via the Zoom platform.
The Director of the Directorate for Sports and Youth of Montenegro and Chair of this year’s RYCO Governing Board Mr Vasilije Lalošević welcomed the Governing Board members and singled out the importance of RYCO as a mechanism that provides opportunities and support to young people from the Western Balkan region.
“It is important that RYCO has the support of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and the government of Montenegro in solving the problems of young people in Montenegro and the region. Educating youth, providing them with mobility opportunities, creating additional cohesion and institutional support for these processes were some of the issues we have been jointly working on. I am pleased that Montenegro chairs this year’s RYCO Governing Board and we will do our best to contribute to the work of RYCO, showing the Montenegrin potential in this field,” Mr Lalošević emphasized.
Youth Representative of Montenegro and the Co-Chair of this year’s RYCO Governing Board Ms Andrea Mićanović used the opportunity to welcome her colleagues from the Governing Board, as well as to express her hopes of having a fruitful discussion in a friendly atmosphere.
“It is both a pleasure and an honor to host you in Montenegro and to organize a meeting in a hybrid format, during which we will hopefully be able to exchange our views, good practices and come up with the decisions that will be in the best interest of RYCO and the youth in the region,” Ms Mićanović stated.
RYCO Secretary General Mr Albert Hani praised the warm welcome from the Chairmanship and the RYCO Local Branch Office in Montenegro, expressing his gratitude for being appointed recently as the new Secretary General.
“I am assuring the Governing Board members that I will continue to pave a successful RYCO path within the framework of the Berlin Process. RYCO’s mission is extremely important and we already made improvements in terms of cooperation and peace building process in the region. Communication will always be the focus of RYCO and we should strengthen it even more in the following period,” Mr Hani concluded.
RYCO Deputy Secretary General Mr Fatos Mustafa and former RYCO Secretary General Mr Đuro Blanuša together with the Governing Board members looked back on what was done in 2020 and discussed the plans and activities for the following period, reaching consensus on many important matters for the organizational development.
Further on, on Thursday, 22 April, RYCO Youth Representatives in the RYCO Governing Board attended additional meetings with the RYCO Secretary General Mr Hani and former RYCO Secretary General Mr Blanuša and discussed the importance of their role and possible opportunities for their greater engagement.
Youth representatives also met with the RYCO Director of Programs Mr Jan Zlatan Kulenović and RYCO Communication and Visibility Officer Mr Nikola Ristić to discuss the development process of the RYCO Strategic Plan 2022-2024 as well as the received proposals to the open call launched in partnership with the German Federal Government for the logo design of the 2021 Berlin Process Summit visual identity.
