MINISTRY OF YOUTH AND SPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA
(October 2008 – March 2009)

CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENTS

• The National Youth Strategy (english version) and the report from seminar “Youth Policy Development in South-East Europe” (Belgrade, September 22-24, 2008; MoYS, Partnership between CoE and EC, SALTO Youth Resource Centre for SEE) were printed and distributed among relevant stakeholders;
• Reestablished Fund for Young Talents awarded following categories of young people:

1. 500 best students for graduate and postgraduate studies within the EU countries (15 000 euros per scholarship);
2. 1000 best students for studying on national universities – monthly scholarships;
3. Awards for the results achieved on national and international competitions in 2008 for high school and university students;

• Extremely productive and quality study visit to Belgium (Flemish Community) was held from November 17^th to 24^th, 2008. The employees from the Ministry also had the chance to exchange the experience with the colleagues from France, Canada, Austria and Portugal;
• The Action Plan for implementation of the National Youth Strategy was adopted by the Government on January 22^nd 2009 – it is consisted of concrete activities and their bearers, as well as budget and indicators of success (it was created in wide consultative process with more than 250 representatives of relevant groups of stakeholders);
• The number of local youth offices increased to 65 (enhancing local activities and initiatives, creating local youth action plan, spreading information relevant to young people, implementing AGENDA 2020 on the local level);
• On January 16^th 2009 the Government of the Republic of Serbia has adopted the Decision about joining the CoE’s Partial Agreement “North-South Centre”. After the official accession on March 01^st 2009, Minister of Youth and Sport and two-member delegation participated on the meeting that was held in Portugal on March 16-17, 2009, at the same time establishing bilateral contacts with the Portuguese institutions,
• Work and activities of the Ministry of Youth and Sport will be presented into details in new edition of Forum 21 that will be published in June 2009;
• New guidelines for open calls for youth projects were created and five different open calls were announced on March 27^th;
• The Ministry of Youth and Sport has intensified its work on establishing the National Youth Agency for implementation of EC “Youth in Action 2007- 2013” Program (IPA 2010);
• The representatives of MoYS had joined the national committee for development of the National Strategy for implementation of goals defined by UN initiative “Alliance of Civilizations”.

PRIORITIES FOR 2009

• Creation of the Law on Youth
• Realization of open calls (to support the youth projects that are in line with the implementation of the NYS)
• Further work on establishing and empowering local and regional youth offices
• Work according the priorities defined by the Action Plan
• Stronger and more proactive international cooperation, with the special accent on regional activities.

MINISTRY OF YOUTH AND SPORT AND THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

1. Conference about the youth mobility, with the special accent on youth card (European and regional promotion of Partial Agreement on Youth Card, establishing common platform for spreading the idea among youth and defining activities for the future) – Belgrade, May 08-10, 2009
2. Seminar on human rights education (50:50 format) – Belgrade, October 19^th-25^th 2009
3. Organization on national competition for the best essay on the occasion of the 60^th anniversary of the Council of Europe.