'A Region Everyone Would Like to Live in'
“As my mandate started just a couple of weeks ago but also having in mind the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, I have to say that my experiences in Tirana are quite positive so far. I am sure that Albania will treat me at least as nice as it did my predecessor. Albanians are known for their hospitality and I have no doubt that I will feel like at home,†the new Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) Secretary General, Albert Hani has said.
As this is the first interview of Albanian Daily News with Secretary Hani he was kind enough to share with us a short CV of his 25-year peace-building experience, and his ambitions in the new position seeing RYCO as a new hope in the region, new young energy that could institutionalize the existing friendships in the Balkans but at the same create new friendship.
Coming from the ethnic Albanians of North Macedonia, his personal opinion on North Macedonia’s relations with its neighbors is that a lot has been done but a lot remains to be improved.
According to him, RYCO and the European Union have a special relation. Having been created thanks to the Berlin Process, Mr. Hani thinks that the expected summit in Berlin this year will be a crown of the previous summits and an occasion to examine what was achieved and what is the way forward. “We need our region strong, united and prosperous. And we are the ones who are holding this destiny in our hands. We are the ones who have the opportunity to succeed. So, let’s not lose it and gamble with this destiny. Let us build a region where everyone would like to stay, live and achieve new heights together with our neighbors,†said RYCO Secretary General, Albert Hani in the following interview:
Albanian Daily News: At the outset allow me to congratulate you as the new Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) Secretary General wishing you successes in your mandate. As this is the first meeting with Albanian Daily News, please, Mr. Hani, could you share some information on your past career and work experience with this organization as the last position was in North Macedonia? Which are some of the items of interest making you the pick up for the current position?
Secretary General Albert Hani: Firstly, thank you for the opportunity and your nice words. Indeed, I used to serve as the Head of the RYCO Local Branch Office in North Macedonia before I got appointed as the RYCO Secretary General by our Governing Board.I like to describe myself as a civil society activist with longstanding experience of more than twenty-five years in managing and leading peace-building and youth projects for a number of international organizations. I have studied International law and then followed master studies one Human resources management and History and Politics. Additionally, I have also conducted informal master studies on Gender and politics. Regardless of my formal background, my main knowledge and skills come from my engagement in non-formal education as a participant in hundreds of training, and as peacebuilding trainer and mediator in hundreds of training and conferences.
It was not easy for me to decide to move forward with my career and apply for the post of the Secretary General of RYCO, but I felt that my accumulated peacebuilding experience and dedication deserves recognition from one side, and from the other side, it deserves to be promoted as the hope for the youth and for the region.
Many times, I felt disappointed and wanted to withdraw from my peace engagement that lasted for over 25 years, but I saw RYCO as a new hope in the region, new young energy that could institutionalize the existing friendships in the Balkans but at the same create new friendship.
- RYCO has already a history of its performance. Could you share with us some of its highlights and which are the main issues of your agenda to promote the mission of this organization at a regional and international level?
- RYCO is there to serve the youth and make sure their interests are reflected on the regional level. We are the link among youth and the decision-making institutions in the region of the Western Balkans, therefore we should do our best to create new links in the region that could bring a new spirit of tolerance, understanding and cooperation.
When we speak about RYCO’s achievements so far, I am proud to underline that we invested over 2,500,000 euros in youth exchanges across the region. These investments resulted in thousands of young people experiencing intercultural youth exchanges on various topics and allowed them to create life-long friendships across the borders. We fostered partnership and cooperation across the Western Balkans and supported numerous initiatives aiming to bring the region closer together. Furthermore, we invested a lot of time and energy in building up our organization in order to serve the young people’s and region’s interest. I am proud to say that we are on the right track and able to promise, as the new RYCO Secretary General, that we will be putting additional efforts in securing even better results.
- Mr. Secretary, given that RYCO is based in Tirana, would you please be more specific on Albania and how do you feel yourself in this new environment. Certainly, I have to say that the pandemic situation has not been so ‘amicable’ for such a start… But having learned that you are a well-known peace promoter, mediator and trainer on topics of peace-building and human rights what can you tell ADN’s readers on your personal assessment on the relations of North Macedonia with its mediate neighboring countries, that is Albania, Kosovo, Greece and Bulgaria?
- As my mandate started just a couple of weeks ago but also having in mind the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, I have to say that my experiences in Tirana are quite positive so far. I am sure that Albania will treat me at least as nice as it did my predecessor. Albanians are known for their hospitality and I have no doubt that I will feel like at home.
My personal opinion on North Macedonia’s relations with its neighbors is that a lot has been done but a lot remains to be improved. To give an example, the Prespa Agreement is a great inspiration on how we can achieve a lot when we work in the common interest. I believe we can learn a lot from this endeavor because its results enabled another level of relations between North Macedonia and Greece.
North Macedonia is doing its best to maintain good neighborhood relationships with all. We have shown flexibility and readiness to strengthen these links with neighbors, and I believe we will continue doing that. Having in mind that North Macedonia strongly supported my candidature as one coming from an ethnic Albanian minority in North Macedonia, it already shows the readiness to value and reward peace engagements, and not discourage them as it was before. As my homeland, the same as the rest of the region, aspires to join the EU, we must all nurture its values. I am convinced that without a sincere practicing of the values of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law and human rights, our region will remain trapped in divisions and will not prosper. And let me be clear, this applies to the whole region. We have to find a common path as soon as possible and focus on developing our region. Otherwise, I am afraid that we are losing the time which is so precious.
- As we mentioned the pandemic, Mr. Hani, which has become the most worrisome problem for the Western Balkan countries and worldwide which has been the specific contribution of RYCO to cope with its repercussions particularly those affecting the youth? I am particularly interested in the feeling of solidarity among people and youth as one of the main targets of RYCO is to bring people closer in good and bad times?
- As you correctly mentioned, RYCO has a clear mandate given by our six governments to bring this region closer together. What RYCO has been doing and will continue to do is that we will always insist on fostering cooperation and reconciliation, and consequently, as their results, promote solidarity in the region. We are happy that we managed to keep this spirit even in the time of the pandemic by finding ways to keep our youth exchanges alive and doing them online. We are convinced that this helped the young people of the region to keep building connections which are a prerequisite for a better future of our region.
Moreover, together with our partners, we managed to provide opportunities for our beneficiaries, most notably high schools, to adapt to the current needs by training them in using online tools and platforms to keep up the work with young people who were largely affected by the pandemic.
I also have to underline that the RYCO Secretariat has supported the Youth Representatives in our Governing Board who urged the governments to always take into consideration the best interest of young people when reshaping and adapting the education process to the current circumstances. Together with them, we will always encourage our governments to intensify the institutional cooperation in the region, exchange experiences and good practices. We believe that this is the only way out of the current situation.
- As a follow up, are you pleased with the contribution of the EU in this fight and this leads me to the general issue of the support RYCO and in general Western Balkans have by the Union, which is embarking on an historical undertaking- the Conference for the Future of Europe? Do you think enlargement will be part of the CFE’s agenda to last more than one year starting from April 18 this year?
- RYCO and the European Union have a special relation. We even count ourselves as part of the European structures. Together with the EU, we supported twelve projects in the region to tackle the COVID-19 consequences affecting young people. Moreover, together with the GIZ, with the support of the EU and the German Government, we are entering a new multi-year partnership to start working on connecting the schools of the region together. Anyhow, the EU is not only a financial supporter of our work. It is, most importantly, our great political ally for bringing the region closer together and we are thankful for this support. Our partnership is indeed an example of how working in a common interest gives results.
On the other side, the EU plays a key role in the region for its development and prosperity. All the facts tell us that the Western Balkans is naturally connected with the EU and its member states. That’s why I personally believe that we should never give up on this dream of becoming a part of the EU even though that process is taking a lot of time. We have to deliver but also the EU has to rebuild the trust among the Western Balkans’ people. It is always a two-way street.
To conclude, the EU must keep the enlargement as a priority. The moment it will give up on it, other actors will fill out the gap that will occur and I am not sure that such a situation will bring lots of good things for none of the Western Balkans six.
-Among the many projects carried by RYCO the project “Let’s Play Together†involving Pro-Basket Invaders Association from Albania, the High School “Sezai Suroi†and the High School “Sveti Sava†from Bujanovac, Serbia, and the initiative on the Wall of Names – a new memorial in Pristina commemorating the lost children of War have drawn my attention. Which is the message carried by RYCO through these initiatives?
- Thank you for singling out these two projects we have supported. They were both supported within our second open call for project proposals co-financed by the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund. Even though these two projects are covering two different fields – the first one promotes togetherness through sport while the second one focuses on the war and its consequences by underlining the importance of dealing with the past, promoting peace and dialogue in the region – they are sending one message, the one of making young people the bearers of a culture of mobility, intercultural exchange and reconciliation and active contributors to democratic development, social and economic prosperity, and European integration in an increasingly open Western Balkans.
-To conclude Mr. Secretary RYCO, in partnership with the German Federal Government, has launched an open call for the design of the 2021 Berlin Process Summit visual identity. It seems very meaningful as the Berlin Process was initiated by Germany to promote regional cooperation of the Western Balkans and to support the EU’s enlargement policy. From 2014 when it was launched until 2021 its itinerary has been Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Trieste, London, Poznan and Sofia/Skopje. Is Berlin’s Summit a restart, how much has the Process delivered and how do you see its perspective?
-The Berlin Process focuses on economic and infrastructural cooperation and integration of the Western Balkans as well as on the people-to-people connectivity. As such, I believe, it immensely contributed to the spirit of cooperation in the region. Just try to recall the situation in the region before the Berlin Process. Would you be able to say that something like RYCO is possible to create back in 2010, let’s say? I wouldn’t say so. But thanks to the Berlin Process, RYCO was created and we are talking about thousands of young people being connected in the region and about scaling up our work now. I think this is a great achievement. On the other hand, the Berlin Process contributed to reaching a number of agreements and fostered the spirit of cooperation in other fields, too.
As we are approaching the summit in Berlin this year, I do not think it is a restart but rather a crown of the previous summits. It is an occasion to examine what was achieved and what is the way forward. Even though a lot has been agreed, the implementation is what is progressing slowly. That’s why I would like to conclude this interview by calling our governments to not give up on the regional cooperation and integration, especially having in mind the latest developments. We need our region strong, united and prosperous. And we are the ones who are holding this destiny in our hands. We are the ones who have the opportunity to succeed. So, let’s not lose it and gamble with this destiny. Let us build a region where everyone would like to stay, live and achieve new heights together with our neighbors.