Serbia Finally Takes Responsibility for its Youth

CRNPS

21 May 2007

Serbia finally got its Ministry of Youth and Sports as a result, among others, of the efforts invested by the Youth Coalition of Serbia. The first Minister of Youth and Sports will be Snezana Samardzic Markovic.

The Youth Coalition of Serbia greets the new Ministry, emphasizing the importance for such an institution in the sense of the State taking its share of responsibility for solution of youth issues, as well as the fact that the youth is one of the priorities of the state.

�Serbia is no longer among the few countries in the world without any national body to take care of the youth, thanks both to the political will of decision-makers, but also on the seven-year long efforts of the youth civil sector�, says the public statement of the Youth Coalition.

The establishment of this body, comments the Coalition, was indeed initiated by the articulated need for its existence by youth organizations and youth sections of political parties in Serbia. A special contribution was made by the round-table discussion organized by the Youth Coalition in May 2006, at the Media Centre Belgrade. It concluded that any such state body should distance itself from daily politics and current affairs and should not be used a means of political promotion.

�Serbia finally takes over the responsibility to care for its young population. The next step would be, in dialogue with the youth and all stakeholders, to prepare a strategy that would answer growing problems and needs of the youth�, concludes the Youth Coalition.