The second International EYCA Educo Camp, attended by 30 young people from Montenegro and the region, came to an end in Cetinje. This three-day educational seminar was organised by the European Youth Card on the occasion of the International Youth Day, with the financial support of the European Union in Montenegro.
The camp began with a panel discussion “European Year of Youth: Young people, are we heard?”, which discussed youth policy, the position of young people in Montenegro, the current problems, programmes being implemented, European practices, as well as recommendations for future steps. The participants of the panel were the State Secretary at the Ministry of Sports and Youth Amina Cikotić, Amela Kovačević Kalender (PH International Montenegro), Dimitrije Jovićević (Advisory Council on Youth, Council of Europe), and Tamara Čirgić (UNDP Montenegro), while Krsto Vukadinović (Ministry of Education) was the moderator.
The panel was followed by educational workshops in the following three days, during which young people had the opportunity to learn in an interactive and interesting way about internet safety for young people, the need to be more involved in decision-making processes, the importance of mental health and skills for public speaking, but also to get to know mobility programmes for young people which are implemented by the European Union.
The camp gathered participants from Podgorica, Budva, Mojkovac, Berane, Pljevlja, Kolašin, Nikšić, Tuzi, Belgrade, and Andrijevica. In addition to the European Union in Montenegro, as the main partner of this event, there were also companies that provided product sponsorships: NLB Banka AD Podgorica, Lovćen osiguranje AD, Ledo doo, Mercator doo, Nergelia doo, Riva Print doo, and Red Bull Montenegro.
The European Youth Card (EYCA) is a socially responsible programme that enables young people (13-29 years old) to enter the world of information, mobility, informal education, networking at the national and European level, as well as the use of many privileges in Montenegro (through a partnership with more than 270 companies) and Europe (more than 70,000 companies). The implementation of this project is in line with the goals recognised by the Medium-Term Work Plan of the Government of Montenegro (2022-2024), the Law on Youth, the Youth Strategy (2017-2021) and the European Youth Strategy (2019-2027). The European Youth Card (EYCA) project in Montenegro is implemented by the NGO “Centre for Youth Education” with the support and patronage of the Ministry of Sports and Youth, and, so far, more than 27,000 free cards have been distributed in Montenegro.