The European Fund for the Balkans ( Serbian Cyrillic: Европски фонд за Балкан;

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

: EFB) is an organisation based in Belgrade. It was founded in 2008 as a joint initiative by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the

ERSTE Foundation ERSTE Foundation (in German DIE ERSTE österreichische Spar-Casse Privatstiftung or in short: ERSTE Stiftung) is the biggest Austrian savings bank foundation. In 2003, it evolved from the Erste Oesterreichische Spar-Casse, the first Austrian savin ...

, the King Baudouin Foundation and the Compagnia di San Paolo in order to support countries from the former Yugoslavia during their EU association process. The EFB coordinated the Civil Society Forum within the framework of the

Berlin Process The Berlin Process is an intergovernmental cooperation initiative linked to the future enlargement of the European Union. It started with the 2014 Berlin Conference, which was followed by the 2015 Vienna Summit, the 2016 Paris Summit, the 201 ...

. On its 10th anniversary of the foundation launched the Declaration of a European Balkans Partnership, a document signed by numerous Balkan actors which calls for more engagement by the EU in the former Yugoslavia to complete the region's socio-economic transformation. Declaration was authored by

Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group The Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (abbreviation: BiEPAG) is an expert group founded in 2013 by European Fund for the Balkans and Centre for Southeast European Studies of the University of Graz. It is composed of the policy analysts, sc ...

(BiEPAG) who consulted Balkans state officials, representatives of European Union, representatives of civil society and renowned experts and intellectuals.

Programmes

The European Fund for the Balkans (EFB) had two main programs aimed at developing human capital. One is the ''

Fellowship Programme for Government Officials from the Western Balkans A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

'' launched in 2008 which aims to educate civil servants about European political and social systems. The other is a series of ''Policy Hackathons'', events aiming to create new solutions for issues faced by the citizens in the Balkans. The

Think and Link Regional Policy Programme In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...

was launched in 2008. Its aim is to support Balkan civil society organisations and independent institutes in the fields of public analysis, research and

public policy proposals In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

. A project aimed at improving regional cooperation is the

(BiEPAG), which represents a group of experts engaged in researching political, economic and social trends in the Balkans. EFB established this group together with the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz in 2013.

10th anniversary

On 16 April 2018, its 10th anniversary, the foundation launched the Declaration of a European Balkans Partnership, a document signed by numerous Balkan actors that calls for more engagement by the EU in the Yugoslav successor states in order to complete the region's socio-economic transformation.

Balkanoscope

On 26 March 2018 a new project called "Balkanoscope" was presented in Brussels. It is a joint initiative of '' European Western Balkans'' and European Fund for the Balkans. Aim of the project is to "present the Balkans from a different viewpoint...where real people are struggling with real issues" by publishing different stories and interviews. As of 7 August 2018 there are English and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

version of the portal.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Official website
Foundations based in Serbia Political and economic think tanks based in Europe Political organizations based in Serbia European integration think tanks