On November 7th, 2019, in the Europe House in Pristina (Kosovo), the Balkan Network for Local Democracy (BNLD) was officially launched! The event opened with a warm welcome and introductive speeches by Elbert Krasniqi, President of BNLD; Mr. Maurizio Camin, Executive director of “Associazione Trentino con i Balcani”; Mr. Oriano Otocan, President of ALDA; as well as Ms. Stanka Parac Damjanovic, SEE Regional Program Manager of ALDA.

More than 70 representatives of the civil sector, local authorities and media also gathered to take part in this crucial moment for the history of BNLD, learning about the vision and mission of the Network, its origins and founders.

The Local Democracy Agencies involved in the Network shared experiences and success-stories from joint projects, and displayed videos showcasing testimonies from different stakeholders. After the presentations, the participants took advantage of a networking session, discussing potential future activities to be implemented within the Network and understanding how to best benefit from them.

The Balkan Network for Local Democracy is a regional network, founded by ALDA – European Association for Local Democracy together with seven Local Democracy Agencies from the Western Balkans, which focuses on the promotion of active citizen participation, democratic governance principles, local development and co-operation between civil society organizations and local public authorities in the Western Balkan Region. The BNLD launching event was organized in the framework of the project “Regional Youth Compact for Europe”, a cooperation initiative launched by 14 Civil Society Organisations from the European Union, Western Balkans and Turkey, and funded by the European Union.

You can read the article here.