From 25-28 May 2008, in cooperation with the foundations Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Fund for an open society Serbia and organization Ligo Lex Legis from the Faculty of Law in Pristina, The Youth Dialogue Programme from Novi Sad held the first official gathering of youth from Serbia and Kosovo, after the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo. The theme of the conference was „Meeting of youth from Serbia and Kosovo – dialogue, cooperation, trust“. The conference gathered some 30 participants, young people from Serbia and Kosovo, members of the Serbian, Albanian, Bosniak and Goran communities.

This conference was organized only two months after the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo and represents a clear signal that young people have sent out to both domestic and international actors and the representatives who participate actively in the processes regarding Serbia and Kosovo.

This message, addressed at the social community, means that young people are ready to continue the dialogue immediately and resume the work on the shaping of a common European perspective for the citizens of Serbia and Kosovo without delay.

During the organization of this meeting, two particularly important issues arose that will determine future relations, and these are the question of the position of minority communities in Kosovo and how to motivate these communities, through a joint effort, to address the institutions in Pristina as the forum for the protection of their rights. The second issue that appeared to us as a very important one is the issuance of Kosovo passports, which is expected to start soon after the transfer of a part of the UNMIK competences to the Kosovo institutions. We should emphasize that, during our cooperation hitherto, we have come across a great deal of understanding on the part of the Ministry of internal affairs of Serbia, which has been allowing the arrival of participants who possess only UNMIK travel documents. The same was the situation with this conference, since all the Albanian participants were in possession only of UNMIK documents. As organizers, we consider that further improvements will be made in respect of UNMIK documents. It is important to note that the Serbian Government now openly recognizes the institutions of UNMIK in Kosovo, from which it might follow as a logical consequence that the travel of persons with UNMIK documents will be further liberalized. As an organization, we intend to lobby domestic institutions to that effect. However, it is quite likely that there will be an interruption of cooperation i.e. in the movement of persons and goods once the Kosovo passports are used. It is difficult to envisage the situation in which the Serbian authorities would recognize such travel documents.
We consider that there will be an interruption of cooperation in the direction Serbia-Kosovo, but not vice versa, that to the extent that it has so far been.

Besides these two issues, a lot has been said about the influence of Serbian and Albanian media on the processes of reconciliation between the two communities, intercultural dialogue and the transformation of societies of the Western Balkans into developed civic societies. The lecturers on this conference were Ms Jelena Milic (Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies), Mr. Eldin Asceric (Secretary of Islamic community of Serbia), Ms. Svetlana Lukic (editor of Radio Broadcast “Pescanik” on Radio B92), Ms. Claudia Nolte (Director of Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Serbia), Mr. Nenad Canak (President od LSV - League of Vojvodinian Social democrats).

 List of present media : BETA News Agency, Radio Deutche Welle, UNMIK TV, Vojvodinian Radio Television, 

http://blog.b92.net/text/3100/kako%20znati%20ko%20la%C5%BEe/
http://www.e-novine.com/sr/srbija/clanak.php?id=14218

http://www.magazinvojvodina.com/vesti.php?datum=2008-05-28

http://dinkogruhonjic.blogspot.com/2008/05/susret-mladih-albanaca-i-srba-na-frukoj.html

This project was realized in cooperation and with the financial support of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Fund for an open society Serbia.

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