The third and the final seminar which marks the end of the 3-month Fellowship programme for the 20 Young Government Officials and EFB Fellows took place in Tuhelj (Croatia) in the period between June 28 - July 3, 2013.
In the spirit of the motto of the European Fund for the Balkans, which goes: "Bringing the Western Balkans closer to the EU" and vice versa, the gathering of the fellows for the final seminar was intentionally reserved to be held in Croatia- the new 28th member state of the EU.
With this strategic choice of the EFB team, the fellows were given an opportunity to witness the July 1st ceremony in Zagreb which marked the Croatia’s accession to the EU, as a historical event and a success story for the entire region of the Western Balkans.
On the first day of the seminar, the Fellows from the current generation were also gathered with their colleagues from the previous generations of the EFB Fellowship Programme in order to participate in the EFB Community Networking Event / Joint Training named “Croatia and the future of the Western Balkans Enlargement “.
The main objective of this joint training day was to bring together the Fellows and the EFB Community for an interactive and communicative team-event, all with an aim of networking. The idea of this networking event is to integrate the different backgrounds and individual expertise of the EFB Community members and to encourage and strengthen the development of not only a “social” but a “knowledge and expertise” network. Exchange of experience and lessons learnt with peers, use of personal knowledge and expertise, and finding creative ways of solution, will enable Fellows to come up with their vision of cohesion and cooperation in the region.
- After five editions of the European Fund for the Balkans' “Fellowship Programme for Young Government Officials from the Western Balkans: Supporting Excellence and Leadership in Governance” I am proud about our joint results achieved and I am happy and enthusiastic about the future potentials of this initiative.
With you, as participants of this Programme, the EFB has created a network of nearly 100 young professionals, carriers of the message of change in our region and ambassadors of your home institutions and countries abroad - says Hedvig Morvai, the Executive Director of the European Fund for the Balkans.
The Tuhelj seminar offered the current Fellows an opportunity to participate in the leadership training. The one-day workshop “Leadership Self-Portrait“ served to collect, share and develop experiences and expectations on leadership at collective and personal levels. The workshop included group/team-work, as well as individual reflection and evaluation, short lecture inputs and wrap-up.
The Fellows from the Generation 2012/2013 had an opportunity to mutually exchange ideas on leadership in their job situation and also during their internships, to learn about different leadership skills such as communication, motivation, conflict resolution.
The second day was focused on the training “Similarity and Difference - The Validity of Stereotypes”, where the Fellows explored the “similarities and differences”, through a close look at the prejudices and stereotypes, why they exist and how they can be dealt with.
The finale of the whole programme came after the evaluation sessions, when the Fellows were awarded with the certificates for the Fellowship Programme for Young Civil Servants, becoming members of the EFB Community in the same time.
The call for application for the next generation of the Fellowship program 2013/14 will be announced at the end of July.
