On 24-25 October ACA hosted a networking seminar in Podgorica, Montenegro together with the National Erasmus+ Office in the country and with kind support of the University of Montenegro. Hosted at the University’s Rectorate, the seminar gathered some 50 participants – representatives of all six Western Balkan national offices and agencies for Erasmus+, university representatives and a number of ACA members and partners. 

The seminar was designed and realised by the ACA Working Group on the Western Balkans, comprising CMEPIUS (Slovenia), EDUFI (Finland), IKY (Greece), OeAD (Austria) and TPF (Hungary) and supported by the Brussels-based ACA Secretariat. The University of Montenegro’s Vice-Rector Nataša Kostic, the Coordinator of the Montenegrin National Erasmus+ Office Vanja Drljevic and ACA Director Bernd Wächter opened the event by welcoming participants and setting the scene for the thematic discussions that followed. The programme started with a panel focusing on the developments and aspirations in the region, which featured four national representatives from the Western Balkans, followed by a number of sessions where ACA members presented their work in the region and lessons learned, as well as ideas for further cooperation. The participants confirmed that events such as this one are conducive for enhancing cooperation, exchange of practices and peer learning, and called on ACA to realise similar thematic activities that would bring together a comparable participant group and meet the needs and aspirations of both regional partners and ACA member organisations. 

As a follow up to the seminar, ACA will circulate a brief report from the event together with a list of recommended future activities, which will be selected together with the regional partners. 

On this occasion, ACA would like to express gratitude to the Erasmus+ Office in Montenegro for their support in preparation of the seminar – to Vanja Drljevic and Ranko Lazovic, to the University of Montenegro for being the kind host of the event and last but not least, to the members of the ACA Working Group for their commitment, ideas and enthusiasm to prepare this event and develop together a number of future activities. 

More information about the event can be found here. You can follow the activities of the Working Group in the ACA Newsletter and on the ACA website.