A team of BiH students, coming from the Faculty of Economics Banja Luka and Faculty of Economics Bihać, presented their winning campaign “Self UP” to EU officials in Brussels on 23 February. The campaign was developed as part of an EUSR in BiH Outreach project to address socioeconomic issues and encourage young people to speak about the challenges they face.
Students met with Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Tibor Navracsics, representatives of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), as well as the Head of BiH Mission to the EU, Ambassador Lidija Topić.
Students from fourteen universities and faculties from across Bosnia and Herzegovina, working in seven teams, took part in the project ‘EU for You – E4U, with the aim to develop public information campaigns on socio economic reforms that would resonate among young BiH citizens. The EU Special Representative (EUSR) Office in BiH asked BiH university students to tell people about the challenges they face, to describe the problems that they have to overcome as they begin their professional careers and to propose solutions to those problems.
The winning team with the slogan “Start Yourself UP!”, comprised of students from the Faculty of Economics Banja Luka and the Faculty of Economics Bihać, stood out with their determination and drive to encourage young people to realise their ideas and to increase the number of youngsters who start own businesses. During their visit to Brussels, the winning team also presented the campaigns of their peers from the other six teams with the #E4U project, focused on themes such as vocational training, volunteering and education reform.
E4U has created a forum in which young students from BiH as future professionals have been able to speak, and in which their opinions have been heard. It has allowed them to send their message across the country – and beyond. Through their ideas and hard work, these young people showed that young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina have the vision, the energy and the capacity to drive the country towards fulfilling its EU future.
