In crossroads Balkans, dialogue across borders
History is difficult and dramatic, but people in Bulgaria and the neighboring countries have lots in common and a shared future. With support from Norway Grants, the Barents Secretariat presents short films about how local authorities, civil society and the media work across Balkan borders.
”The neighboring peoples in this region have common roots, and they live with common feelings, common hopes and common everyday plans”, journalist Violata Atanasova says. At the same time, however, she and her colleagues admit that cooperation across the borders is not always easy and that journalists in the neighboring countries have too little contact with eachother. Violeta lives and works in Kyustendil, a Bulgarian town on the border to Macedonia.
On the other end of the country, in Elkhovo on the border to Turkey, journalist Nikolay Stoyanov agrees that cross-border journalism and exchange of information should get better.
”People from both countries would better learn to know eachother”, he says about perspectives for enhanced media cooperation.
In two short films, both produced in cooperation with Norwegian journalist Trine Hamran, we take a closer look at cross-border cooperation between Bulgaria and the neighboring countries of Macedonia and Turkey. Special focus is placed, on the one hand, on local authorities and civil society, and on the other on journalists and media organizations, all of them crucial stakeholders in local cross-border relations.
Over the last three years, the Barents Secretariat has cooperated closely with the Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development and other stakeholders in a Norway Grants project on cross-border cooperation in the Balkans.
Media and journalist cooperation is one of the components in the project named ”Bulgarian Border Dialogues”. The project is part of the Norway Grants Programme BG11 Capacity Building and Institutional Cooperation. Project promoter is the Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development.
A key ambition in the cooperation is to share expericences on cross-border cooperation between the Barents Region and the Balkans. While the Barents Secretariat promotes cross-border Barents cooperation, the Bulgarian ministry is key CBC stakeholder in the Balkan with its management of the EU-supported IPA CBC programmes.
The ”Bulgarian Border Dialogues” includes the development of the data portal Patchwork Balkan, a tool for information, analysis and journalism production in the Balkans.
Read more about the Norwegian Barents Secretariat's engagement with Norway Grants
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