The Regional School for Democracy ‘’ New Leaders – New Opportunities’’ for youth representatives of political parties was held from the 25th until the 29th of July 2016 in Šabac, Serbia. The tenth, jubilee summer school for democracy was realized by the Belgrade Open School(BOS) in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Serbia Foundation and the Eduardo Frei Foundation.
The 20 participants, representatives of relevant political parties from Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, participated in the five-day seminar, the goal of which was the improvement of capacities through interactive lectures, workshops and trainings. Participants had the opportunity to, through lectures and interactive sessions, talk to the lecturers from BOS and the Eduardo Frei Foundation about the division of power, good governance, political aspirations of the European Parliament, Germany’s foreign policy, modern political ideologies, the elections and election systems, political systems etc.
On the School’s second day, a panel discussion was held on the following topic: ‘’The Region on its Eurointegrations path – transforming challenges into possibilities’’, where the programme’s alumni from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia spoke. Apart from that, the participants learned, through simulations and interactive lectures, what the characteristics of a successful political team were, and they established what role within a team suits them the most. They added to their knowledge about communication within a team, learned what the decision making process looks like, but also how to solve interests and conflicts within a team. The participants got the opportunity to experience what creating post-election coalitions looks like through a simulation.
The School’s goal is to provide young leaders with additional knowledge in the field of politics, to help them develop skills and to motivate and equip them for improving regional political cooperation. Over a thousand participants have gone through the various education for democracy programmes organized by BOS.