28. November 2016
Last weekend the Balkan Network of the European Green Party (EGP) together with the local host, Democratic Renewal of Macedonia (DOM) organised a conference titled Greening the Balkan Economies in Skopje, Macedonia.
The conference brought together representatives of the European Green Party with members of Green Parties from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro and Serbia as well as CDN’s representatives – members of youth wings of green parties and green youth organisations from the Balkans and people from CDN’s working groups. As speakers and guests we welcomed local and international politicians, civil society activists, experts and representatives of institutions.
The conference opened a possibility for all the people present to discuss the topic of green economy from the regional perspective as an opportunity to open thousands of new green jobs and possibilities to switch to renewable energy, promote energy efficient policies, eco-tourism, the production of organic food, and new methods of water and waste management, as well as the concept of ,,zero waste”.
One of the interesting campaigns currently going on is the Divestment campaign which the European Green Party is a part of. If you are new to the concept of divestment it is explained in this 3 minute VIDEO. How to easily get engaged? You can check HERE.
From Vedran Horvat, (IPE, Croatia) participants heard about the green economy as today’s paradigm of the future. His article in Croatian about the issue can be found HERE. An interesting concept of Zero Waste Municipalities was explained by Bazhe Josifovski (Let’s do it, Macedonia!) while the first Ethical Bank in Croatia and Philanthropy for Green Ideas brought a new energy to the discussion by introducing new green business ideas which strengthen local communities, challenge the traditional economic system and encourages community-based markets in a creative, inclusive and green ways.
We are looking forward to following up on the meeting and spreading some of the innovative ideas.
CDN Team