The Border Focal Point Network is delighted to announce the speakers for the 6th edition of the ‘Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debate’ series. The event, inspired by the “2020’s “Manifesto for Young People by Young People to Shape the European Cooperation Policy”, which is the result of a democratic and bottom-up process to involve young people in shaping the future of EU Cohesion policy, and the IVY volunteer programme, an initiative offering the possibility to young people aged 18-30 to serve as volunteers in cross-border, transnational or interregional programmes and related projects will take place on 3rd February 2022 10:00 CET to 11:10 CET. 

The event will begin with opening remarks from Louise Floman, Programme Manager at DG REGIO. Louise she also works as a contact point between IVY and the Commission. Previously, she worked at the Stocklholm Region EU Office as EU Policy Manager and graduated with a Master’s degree in European Studies from Gothenburg University. 

Following this Bektha Djilidjel will give an introduction to the Youth Manifesto. Bekha Djilidjel is co-author of the Manifesto is a former IVY at Joint Secretariat Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen. She is a Member of the Manifesto Core Group and Co-Organiser Tirana Interreg Youth Conference 2022. 

Following this introduction the discussion will continue with two presentations from local youth projects, namely, the ALCOTRA Prgramme (FR-IT) and the RoBulUs project (RO-BG). These projects will be represented by Maria Rosaria Valentini and Tzvetalina Genova respectively.  

Maria Rosaria Valentini, has been the communication officer of Interreg France-Italy ALCOTRA since 2016, based on the Joint Secretariat of the Programme in Turin. Preceding this she acted as a communication expert for the “Euromed Youth” Regional Programme –ENPI-South for five years. She has been a mentor to 9 Interreg Reporters in the framework of The Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) Initiative. Tzvetalina Genova is the Chairperson of International Management Institute`s (IMI, Bulgaria) Managing Board and Head of Project and Applied Research Department at Varna University of Management (VUM, Bulgaria). She has contributed to all IMI’s international youth projects whose main concern has been to bolster students’ and youth leaders’ involvement with global developmental and environmental issues, including poverty, education, youth unemployment. 

After these presentations, a panel discussion involving all speakers will follow on the role of young people on shaping EU cross-border cooperation. In this discussion, current speakers will be joined by Birte Wassenberg and Beniamino Brunati. 

Birte Wassenberg, who will be representing the MOOC on this panel, is Professor in History of International Relations at the Political Sciences Institute (IEP), University of Strasbourg. From 1993 to 2006, she was Attachee territoriale at the Regional Council of Alsace. Since 2013, she holds a Jean Monnet Chair on the contribution of cross-border cooperation to the European Neighborhood Policy. 

Beniamino Brunati, is an IVY volunteer and multilingual, pro-active political science graduate with a strong international background. He is also a former exchange student at Putnam City High School (Oklahoma City, United States, 2014-2015), University of Bologna -Buenos Aires Campus (2017), and Erasmus at SciencesPo Paris (2018-2019).  

Interested in joining the conversation? Register here.