Monthly Archives: November 2017

Speed dating: EU Funds for Youth and Youth Cooperation in the Region

28/11/2017

A speed date with representatives of European Union funds offering support to cooperation of youth in the region will be organised in the EU Info Centre in Belgrade on 7th December at 12.00 p.m.

The quick introduction of representatives of civil society organisations to EU funds for projects whose focus is youth and which encourage cooperation of youth in the region is a part of the campaign “Europe for You”, and it is jointly organised by the EU Info Centre, Delegation of the European Union in Serbia, Office for Cooperation with the Civil Society and the Foundation Ana and Vlade Divac.

Through the concept of speed dating, i.e. quick introductions, representatives of organisations will have an opportunity to ask questions and learn about funding possibilities for their projects and activities. Apart from the direct introductions, the aim of this concept is also motivating youth to stay active and get the opportunity to receive support and implement their ideas further.

The meeting will be attended by representatives of the following EU programmes:

1. Europe for Citizens Programme
2. Youth Bank Hub Western Balkan and Turkey
3. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
4. Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO)
5. Propulsion Fund (Foundation for New Communications Dokukino)
6. Erasmus+
7. Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs
8. Creative Europe

Apart from them, representatives of the Youth Umbrella Organisation of Serbia and the EU Info Centre will also attend.

The event will take place in the EU Info Centre (7 Kralja Milana St, Belgrade), on Thursday 7th December 2017 from 12.00 p.m. to 2.00 p.m.

Registrations for the event are mandatory and can be done by filling in a short online form that you can find HERE at latest by 6th December at 12.00 p.m. It is possible to register one person per organisation. A refund of travel expenses amounting to a return bus ticket has been organised for 15 representatives of organisations outside of Belgrade. Due to limited space, there is a possibility all applications will not be accepted, and priority will be given to organisations which apply first. After the deadline for filling the online questionnaire lapsed, participants whose applications were accepted will be notified through email.

You can find the programme of the event here.


Culture Desk Serbia at the KreNI Conference

28/11/2017

Representatives of the Culture Desk Serbia will present the support of the Creative Europe programme to the development of creative industries within the KreNI conference of creative industries on Friday 1st December at 12 p.m. in the EU Info corner in Niš (5 Vožda Karađorđa St).

The competition for projects of European cooperation, whose priorities include the development of creative industries and raising capacities of institutions and organisations in culture, will be presented on this occasion, as well as successful projects from Serbia in the field of creative industries. A separate part of the presentation will be related exactly to the open call of the Creative Europe programme – cultural and creative spaces and cities which has the aim to support creative hubs.

Moreover, this opportunity will be used to present priorities of the Government of the Republic of Serbia in the development of creative industries.

Dimitrije Tadić, Head of the Creative Europe Desk Serbia, and Milan Đorđević, Project Manager of Culture Desk Serbia, will speak about the Creative Europe programme. The support of the Government of the Republic of Serbia to the development of creative industries will be presented by Ana Ilić, Advisor of the Prime Minister of the Government of RS for the film industry, creative industries, tourism and digital entertainment and Bojana Simeunović, Associate in the Office of the Prime Minister of the Government of RS.

Programme:

14.00 -16.00 Presentations
16.00 -16:30 Questions and Answers

Attendance of the presentations is free of charge – however, due to organisational reasons it is required to register through email at officenis@euinfo.rs or by phone at 018/254-461 until 29th November at 7 p.m.

Presentation will be held as a part of the KreNI conference of creative industries organised by CA Young Ambassadors (Mladi ambasadori) with the support of the Delegation of the European Union in the Republic of Serbia and the City of Niš. It is also a part of the campaign for youth “Europe for You” conducted by the EU Delegation and the EU Info Corner


Cultural and creative spaces and cities

20/11/2017

In line with Regulation No 1295/2013, the 2018 Annual Work Programme for the implementation of the Creative Europe programme foresees the launch of a call for proposals for cultural and creative spaces and cities. This call will support innovation in the cultural and creative sectors, with EUR 1,5 million allocated to the development of an action addressing this specific objective. The grant agreement resulting from this call for proposals will be allocated to one single project.

As specified in the Work Programme, the present action addresses creative hubs (A creative hub is an infrastructure or venue that uses a part of its leasable or available space for networking, organisational and business development to the cultural and creative sectors. Many co-working spaces in the creative sector also refer to themselves as “creative hubs”), which have recently and rapidly developed in numerous cities throughout the EU. Apart from creative hubs, the present action should provide support to cultural and creative spaces as well as other stakeholders in particular at the local level, including local, municipal and regional authorities.

The present call for proposals aims at strengthening existing networks and individual cultural and creative stakeholders, facilitate the interaction among them, two-way hands-on policy learning with concrete results, studies and examples of best practice.

Proposals should show how the following objectives will be pursued by the action:

Bring closer together cultural and creative spaces and local decision-makers
Help to better valorise public spaces for social and urban regeneration through culture
Share best practice concerning social inclusion and the relations of cultural and creative spaces with their neighbourhoods
Explore and share best practice of cultural and creative spaces with aspects of the collaborative economy and innovative models for the delivery of public services

The proposal should contain information as to how it intends to build on the results achieved and the policy lessons derived from previous actions funded under the cross-sectoral strand (European Network of Creative Hubs and Culture for Cities and Regions), other relevant projects such as the Trans-Europe Halles network and “Creative Lenses” , funded under the Creative Europe Programme, the European Network of Cultural Centres (ENCC) as well as on the successful experiences of urban regeneration driven by a number of European Capitals of Culture (ECOC).

The planned duration of the project shall be 28 months. The planned starting date should be no later than 31 October 2018. Please find more details here.


Results of the Competition for Literary Translations 2017

17/11/2017

Results of the competition for literary translations have been published. Publishing houses from Serbia achieved great success through their proactive approaches and good ideas and repeatedly placed Serbia on the first place by the number of approved projects within the competition for literary translation.

The decision of the board on this year’s competition was directed towards supporting a smaller number of projects with larger amounts of funds, hence, the total of 33 projects of literary translation were supported.

Out of the submitted 22 projects, 5 projects of domestic publishing houses received support of the Creative Europe programme. Among the most successful are also Bulgaria with 20 submitted and 4 supported projects, but also Croatia and FYR Macedonia with 3 supported project each.

We wish to extend our congratulations to the Independent Agency for Publishing Odiseja for the project Old Continent, New People: Finding Your Own Place, Publishing Agency Štrik for the project Women’s Decameron: for a new Renaissance in European literature, Kontrast Publishing for the project Europe: Different Journeys, One Destination, Publishing House Arete for the project European Literature Today: Universal Stories of Personal Revolutions and the Company for Graphic and Publishing Works Heliks for the project Beyond horizons: cross-cultural mosaic of contemporary European fiction.

The total funds awarded to publishing houses from Serbia within this year’s competition for literary translations amount to €271,008.59. You can find more information about the results of the competition at the European Commission website.


News

Creative Europe Conference in Skopje

13/11/2017

A conference on the topic: “Creative Europe of the EU – Encouragement for Cultural Cooperation” was held today in the EU Info Centre in Skopje. The Minister of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia, Robert Alagjozovski, spoke on the topic “The Way to the Western Balkans to the EU: Culture has its own role”, and addresses were also made by the Head of the EU Delegation to Skopje, Ambassador Samuel Zbogar on the topic “Why Culture Is Important to European Union? “, as well as the Head of the Culture Department of the European Commission’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, Karel Bartak.

The conference was organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia, in cooperation with the Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture Affairs of the European Commission (Sector for Culture) and the Film Agency of the Republic of Macedonia. The conference included a practical part, which refers to the present results of the implementation of the program at the European level, and presented the current calls for applications for the sub-programs Culture and MEDIA of the European Union.

The second part of the conference was dedicated to experiences from the region. Vesela Kondakova, Head of CED Bulgaria presented the presidency of Bulgaria of the EU and plans to strengthen cooperation in the region. Dimitrije Tadic, Head of the Creative Europe Desk Serbia, spoke about European cooperation and cultural diplomacy through the presentation of the publication Cultural Diplomacy: Art, Festivals and Geopolitics, joint edition of Creative Europe Desk Serbia and the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.


News

Expert Meeting of BiH Desk in Sarajevo

10/11/2017

Creative Europe Desk BiH in cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH organised a seminar with the topic “EU funds for culture, improvement of regional cooperation in the sector of culture and support by local sources”.

Representatives of Desks from Albania, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia spoke about their experience of participating in the Creative Europe programme, but also about participation supporting mechanisms existing on the national level.

Situations and co-financing instruments differ in countries of the region – in Albania the government, municipalities and regional institutions take part in co-financing, and in Greece in the period from 2007 to 2017 the government co-financed 690 projects which received funds from the European Union.

In Montenegro, there is still no national mechanism of co-financing project which received EU support, while the situation is clearly different in Slovenia where the Ministry of Culture founded a fund for support of Slovenian cultural institutions, whereas in 2016 alone the amount of 85,000 EUR was approved for co-financing. An especially interesting fact is that Slovenian municipalities finance these projects to the level of as much as 30% of the requested funds. 

In Croatia there is a fund for co-financing and organisations which receive EU support don’t have the obligation to pay VAT. Dimitrije Tadić from Creative Europe Desk Serbia presented the possibilities offered in Serbia where all successful applicants within the Creative Europe programme can receive co-financing for their projects through specialised competitions of the Ministry which makes participating in the calls significantly easier.

Experiences from the region demonstrate that it is necessary to form project co-financing mechanisms within the Creative Europe programme of the EU on different administrative levels in BiH, emphasised Edin Veladžić from the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH. It is also necessary to determine a clear and simple procedure which would allow lifting of the obligation to pay VAT for activities in cultural projects financed from EU funds. By familiarising the present representatives of the entities’ and cantonal ministries of culture with multiple values and benefits of participating in the Creative Europe programme, the first step was made towards recognition of awarded projects and their support in allocating the funds intended for culture, and it was also emphasised that establishment of separate budget lines for these projects would greatly relieve their realisation.

The jointly reached conclusion is that it is needed to design a strategy for better promotion of successful applicants and projects in public, with the aim of connecting with the business sector and also further support of organisations by co-financing these projects. The Head of the Creative Europe Desk BiH Aida Kalender pointed out that she expected the result of the meeting to also be a significantly bigger number of partnerships in project preparation for calls within the EU funds and, hence, a bigger number of joint successful projects.


News

Digital Tools in Culture: Funds, Projects, Audience

08/11/2017

27th-28thNovember, Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, 1 Uzun Mirkova St

Two-day seminar “Digital Tools in Culture: Funds, Projects, Audience” is dedicated to the topic of digitalisation and application of digital tools in culture. The programme of the first day of the event is designed to present different possibilities in obtaining financial support for projects of contemporary creativity in the fields of digital arts, digitalisation of cultural heritage and its interpretation and promotion, application of digital tools and innovation in working with audiences, development of the digital infrastructure and online distribution of content, inter-sector cooperation and strengthening capacities of cultural professionals during the digitalisation process.

The second day will encompass presenting examples of cultural initiatives and projects successfully applying digital tools. By pointing out the changes in interaction between cultural programmes and audiences, this part of the programme offers a comprehensive overview of the following questions: how does digitalisation influence creation, availability and use of cultural content; what effect does it have on creators of cultural programmes, what opportunities of further development of the cultural sector does it offer: new work positions and new forms of presentations.

Contribution to innovation and creativity in the cultural field through contemporary creativity, designing new business models, using digital technologies and promoting innovation through inter-sector cooperation are some of the most important priorities of the Creative Europe programme.

The seminar is a joint activity of the Creative Europe Desk Serbia and the Sector for the Development of Digital Research Infrastructure in the Fields of Culture and Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.

Creative Europe programme is the main programme of the European Union for support of the cultural sector and audio-visual activities. It helps cultural and creative organisations to act on the international level and promotes cross-border circulation of cultural works and mobility of cultural professionals. It offers financial support to projects with a European dimension which have the aim of disseminating cultural content within the European cultural space.

Sector for the Development of Digital Research Infrastructure in the Fields of Culture and Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia offers support to cultural institutions and organisations in the digitalisation process and in using digital tools in cultural projects. The Sector is conducting coordination-organisational, developmental and technologically-operational activities which have the aim to create the national strategy and plans of digitalisation, define technologic, legal and organisational frameworks for successful construction of digital research infrastructure, and also the widest coordination of all participants in the process.

The event is open for all interested parties, and the programme of the event will soon be published on our website.


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