Projects

Beyond Erasmus

Education, Exchanges and Employment opportunities for youth in the EU and Turkey

Phase III

All good things must come to an end they say, and the same rule applies to our “Beyond Erasmus” project – at least for now! In between 30th of March and 4th of April, the European Neighbourhood Council (ENC) team along with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) team in Turkey traveled and organised three lectures in Adana, Eskisehir and Samsun. The series of lectures were part of the 3rd and final phase of the hybrid training programme “Beyond Erasmus: Education, Exchanges and Employment opportunities for youth in the EU and Turkey” which started during November 2021.

After the successful networking trip in Brussels, the Beyond Erasmus fellows, namely, Cem, Sinan, Cagla, Ecenur, Mathilde, Katharina, and Selen were called to share their views and experiences during three lectures in public academic institutions across Turkey. They shared their Erasmus exchange experience, explained the benefits of such programmes – including networking opportunities – and the rationale behind their participation in the Beyond Erasmus project with students from Çukurova University (Adana), Eskisehir Osmangazi and Anadolu Universities (Eskisehir) and Ondokuz Mayıs University (Samsun).

First Stop: Adana

During the lectures the focus was on EU – Turkey relations, each time shedding light into a different aspect. At Çukurova University, the keynote presentation by Ali Yaras, energy and sustainability expert, was dedicated to climate change and environmental policies. Mr. Yaras talked, among other things, about key environmental treaties, the significance of the ratification of the Paris agreement by Turkey and what it means for Turkish producers and subsequently for consumers. Considering the ongoing war in Ukraine, he also highlighted the importance of investing more on renewables and decrease the country’s energy reliance on fossil fuels.

Next Destination: Eskisehir

In Eskisehir, digital journalism, fact-checking and digital marketing were in the spotlight. Burak Ütücü, video journalist with the Turkish service of the Independent and founder of Observe Turkey talked about the importance of student-level journalism, the story behind Observe Turkey and shared useful tips about digital journalism. Ezgi Toprak, fact-checker at Teyit.org, in her presentation explained why fact-checking is necessary with practical examples from daily news, and the nexus between education, distrust towards media and fake news. Finally, Ahmet Balat, digital marketing expert and co-founder of Brandok Performance Marketing Agency, spoke about clickbait, what it is, how it works, the connection between clickbait and social media following patterns and shared tips on how to avoid it.

Final Stop: Samsun

The 3rd and final lecture took place on the shores of the Black Sea in the city of Samsun, where for the first time ENC and FNF teams had the chance to interact with academics and students from Ondokuz Mayıs University. In front of an audience of nearly 200 students, Dr. Cigdem Nas, Secretary General at the Economic Development Foundation  (IKV) and Associate Prof. at Yildiz University, had the opportunity to talk about EU – Turkey economic and trade relations.

During the lecture Dr. Nas provided background information about the Customs Union (CU) and how transformative in has been for Turkish economy since 1995. She shed light on why it is essential to renew the CU, why negotiations have been blocked and how to potentially unblock them. Finally, she briefly covered the European Green Deal and its impact on EU – Turkey relations.

The continuous support by local academic institutions in Turkey coupled with high volume formal and informal exchanges among student, our experts and our fellows, showcases the importance of exchange programmes and the need to stay connected, to work together, to share knowledge and ideas at the academic, political, economic and societal level.

The 2021-2022 Beyond Erasmus programme is over, but ENC in cooperation with its long-lasting partners will be back with new innovative programmes to engage with youth and strengthen academic and people-to-people connectivity. Stay tuned…

Launch of the Sanarip Insan project

On 31 March 2022, a forum on “Promoting Equal Economic Opportunities and Resilience of Youth” was held at the Park Hotel Conference Hall, where the Sanarip Insan Project was launched. The round table was held in a hybrid format, with more than 80 guests from the public and private sectors attending offline and international partners and viewers from remote regions of the Kyrgyz Republic attending online.  

The Sanarip Insan project aims to build digital skills capacity among young people, migrants and women, from basic digital literacy to more in-demand digital skills such as information search, use of digital platforms, use of social media functionality, financial operations, online commerce and advanced entrepreneurial skills using information technology. The project plans to reach 100,000 people. 

The Sanarip Insan project is implemented by the European Neighbourhood Council together with the Kyrgyz Internet Society with the financial support of the European Union.

The roundtable combined a business conference with the national traditions of the Kyrgyz people. At the beginning of the forum, the six-year-old Manaschi performed several Manas commandments. Then, during the forum, Raimonds Vingris, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the EU Delegation to the Kyrgyz Republic, gave a “Tushoo kesүү” to the child to mark the opening of the project. 

Raimonds Vingris, Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the EU Delegation to the Kyrgyz Republic, spoke about increasing knowledge in digital skills among the population to ensure rapid employment: “Even in EU countries, there is a digital divide. Adult citizens with low levels of digital skills are more likely to have problems finding jobs, and even when they are employed, they get less than adults with higher levels of digital skills,” he said.

Soyuzbek Nadyrbekov, Deputy Minister of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic, was introduced to all aspects of the project and expressed his great desire to cooperate to jointly improve knowledge in digital literacy among citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic. 

Nurdölöt Bazarbaev, Deputy Minister of Labour, Social Security and Migration of the Kyrgyz Republic, shared that the digital literacy of the population, in the future, will enable the citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic to import digital services to international companies while staying in their home country. 

Ulanbek Mambetakunov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic, shared a great desire to cooperate and improve the digital knowledge and skills of the population to achieve sustainable development goals: “We should pay attention to poverty eradication, to quality education, and necessarily consider digital skills to achieve sustainable development goals. The Ministry of Education and other ministries and agencies are making great efforts to develop digital skills, information literacy and as far as you know, a draft of the state educational standard for primary general education is currently being prepared, where one of the objectives is to develop digital literacy plus increase students’ knowledge on the green economy”. 

Internet creator and Google VP – Vinton Cerf also spoke at the forum, where he shared the importance of teaching digital skills to vulnerable groups in order to increase the capacity of the population.

Maria Bevza, Project Coordinator at the European Neighbourhood Council (ENC) spoke about the implementation of the Sanarip Insan project and the targets to be achieved over the next 2 years. 

Leaders of youth and women’s organisations such as SheStarts, Mutakalim, Otkrytaya Liniya, shared their views on the need to promote equal economic opportunities and sustainability for youth and women in the Kyrgyz Republic.

The forum was the opening event of the Sanarip Insan project where partners, state authorities, media and beneficiaries came to an agreement on cooperation to maximise the promotion of the population of the Kyrgyz Republic through enhanced digital skills. 

Русская версия релиза по этой ссылке.

This website was created and/or maintained with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the European Neighbourhood Council (ENC) / Public Association “Internet Society Kyrgyzstan Chapter” and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union’.

БИРДЕЙ ЭКОНОМИКАЛЫК МҮМКҮНЧҮЛҮКТӨРДҮ ЖАНА ЖАШТАРДЫН ТУРУКТУУЛУГУН ИЛГЕРИЛЕТҮҮ

ПРОДВИЖЕНИЕ РАВНЫХ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИХ ВОЗМОЖНОСТЕЙ И УСТОЙЧИВОСТИ МОЛОДЕЖИ

PROMOTING EQUAL ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND RESILIENCE OF YOUTH

Forum “Improving the Employment Potential of Rural Youth, Women and Migrants through Improving Digital Skills”

Launch of the Sanarip Insan project

Date:                 March 31, 2022

Time:               14.00 Bishkek time/ 10.00 CET

Languages:    English, Kyrgyz, Russian

Online registration link: https://isoc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsdeivpz8oGtKZjhIhhrYrRTzpRCjkiewp

Agenda of the forum: Agenda Sanarip Insan

Millions of people face the challenge of finding themselves in the labour market and being in professional demand without fear of losing their job. However, the labour market situation in the Kyrgyz Republic is ambiguous. Traditional jobs are not sufficient for the working-age population, resulting in high unemployment rates. Increasing digital skills of the population contributes to augmenting the number of jobs and the level of wages. These skills help to equalise living standards in both urban and rural areas. For a smooth transition to a digital economy, Kyrgyzstan needs to transform its training system. This will allow for the rapid and high-quality training of specialists with the competencies most in demand in the labour market.

Due to recent events in the world, migrants have to leave their jobs and return home. It is impossible to predict what percentage of returnees will be able to find work in their home countries. However, given the experience of the pandemic in 2020, it is safe to say that unemployment in the country will increase. The growth of unemployment, a significant reduction of financial opportunities for the population will aggravate the economic situation in Kyrgyzstan and will affect the standard of living of the majority of the country’s population. In these circumstances, it is necessary to provide opportunities to obtain new in-demand professions for vulnerable groups of the population.

In this regard, one of the priorities of the European Neighbourhood Council together with the Public Association “Kyrgyz Internet Society” (ISOC) is the implementation of the project “Promoting Equal Economic Opportunities and Sustainability for Youth” in the Kyrgyz Republic “Sanarip Insan” (“Digital Citizen”) with the financial support of the European Union. It envisages new opportunities for developing the digital literacy of the population, providing knowledge of the digital and green economy to young people and women living in rural areas of the republic, and training a professional digital workforce. The project aims to increase the digital skills capacity of young migrants, including women, from basic digital literacy to more in-demand digital skills such as information search, use of digital platforms, use of social media functionality, financial transactions, online commerce and advanced entrepreneurial skills using information technology.

The roundtable “Enhancing the Employment Potential of Rural Youth, Women and Migrants through Digital Skills” aims to present and discuss an ecosystem of human resources and education projects. During the forum, heads of expert areas and project implementers represented by representatives of the government, development institutions, business and educational structures will summarize the results, discuss the tangible effects of digitalization of education for the population, challenges, and opportunities for including all stakeholders in the implementation of projects. Also, new challenges for young labour migrants from Kyrgyzstan caused by changes in regional labour markets, information exchange between the participants on the use of best practices and the issue of developing recommendations to support and promote vulnerable groups of young migrants will be discussed.

A special focus of the round table will be on the presentation of the Sanarip Insan Project, enhancing the role of Kyrgyz regions in project implementation, sharing best practices and discussing approaches to achieving its indicators. The final outcome of the project activities is the improvement of youth protection indicators on the Sustainable Development and Human Rights Goals. The task to promote and ensure the right to leadership and women’s meaningful participation in decision-making processes is a key one, acting as both a goal and a means to achieve the SDGs.

Русская версия пресс-релиза по этой ссылке. Басма сөз үчүн билдирүү шилтеме менен кыргыз тилинде жеткиликтүү.

This <website/account> was created and maintained with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the European Neighbourhood Council (ENC) / Public Association “Internet Society Kyrgyzstan Chapter” and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union’.

A New Road Transport Cooperation Between Turkey and European Union: Expectations and Possibilities. A week of consultations, meetings, and roundtables in Brussels with the European Neighbourhood Council (ENC).

Between the 22nd and 25th of February, the ENC organized a series of consultations and dissemination with the European Parliament, DG Move, DG Trade, DG Near, TOBB, and Eurochambers for the release of our four new reports on EU-Turkey, EU-Polish, connectivity and transport relations. The project and reports consist of road transport representatives from Poland and Turkey, as well as academic and think-tank institutions. The timing came at a relevant moment, since the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war – and new sanctions against Moscow – will deeply impact Eurasian road connectivity and the transportation sector for lorries in particular.

The official partners of the project and authors of the four reports include the European Neighbourhood Council (ENC – co ), the European Union and Global Research Association (ABKAD – lead), along with the International Transporters’ Association (UND – co ), and  Zrzeszenie Międzynarodowych Przewoźników Drogowych w Polsce (ZMPD – co). The four reports deal with a variety of relevant economic subjects and include detailed recommendations. They namely-include road transportation transit costs, inefficiencies/bottle-necks at the Bulgarian-Turkish border, the importance of renewing the EU-Turkey Customs Union, the serious problem of trade irritants and rule of law issues originating from Turkey, and a variety of unfair burdens which target the Turkish transport sector. Taking into account the likely deviation of some transport routes originating from China and Kazakhstan towards the southern/middle corridor instead, and thereby passing through Turkey, it is urgent and likely that the issues of Bulgarian-Turkish crossing-times, delays, administrative issues will further amplify. It is estimated that over one hundred thousand trucks may no longer be able to use the northern route, depending on the exact impact of sanctions and the war in Ukraine.

During Day 1 (22/02/2022) the ENC held a preparatory meeting with all Project partners in which the Project activities and reports were discussed in detail, including planning and scheduling.

During Day 2 (23/02/2022) the ENC organized a closed-door roundtable with all Partners, including also technical experts, policy-makers, and government representatives in order to present each report and discuss the details of transport policy, EU-Turkey Customs Union, impact assessments, connectivity strategy, and impact on road-transport, and looking at EU-Polish-Turkish economic relations in concrete figures. Speakers and authors included Aysegul Ketenci, EU Expert from UND, Dr. Nicola Contessi, ENC expert and Research Associate at York Centre for Asian Research, Anna Wieczorek and Tomasz Malyszko, main specialists in road transport from ZMPD, and Dr. Can Baydarol, the Vice President of ABKAD. Guests and other expert speakers included Alper Ozel, Chief Executive Chairman from UND, as well as Murat Kavalali from ABKAD and invited participants from the European Commission (DG TAXUD, DG MOVE, DG NEAR, DG TRADE), the European Parliament, think-tanks, missions, and delegations, as well as business associations. The roundtable was moderated by Samuel Doveri Vesterbye, ENC Managing Director.

A special networking lunch for participants was organized, in which participants and speakers had the opportunity to exchange views and continue discussing EU-Turkey economic relations, transport corridors, infrastructure connectivity, renewables, all in the context of the new geopolitical realities in Ukraine and Russia.

During the afternoon a press meeting was organized with journalists, in which each report author had the opportunity to explain the reports in detail and take questions and answers from journalists dealing with transport and connectivity.

During Day 3 (24/02/2022) the ENC recorded two separate podcasts, one with the expert authors from the reports, in which road transportation and EU-Turkey customs union were discussed, and a second podcast with Dr. Niclas Poitiers who is a Research Fellow and specialist in trade, macroeconomics, and EU foreign economic policy at the leading economic think tank Bruegel. The conversation between ENC Managing Director Samuel Doveri Vesterbye and Dr. Poitiers focused on the increasing importance of a renewed EU-Turkey Customs Union and the importance of a more transparent, open, and rules-based Turkey, in which rule of law can support a stable lira, investor confidence and increased EU-Turkey economic relations. The podcast also included detailed exchanges about the number of investments, companies, and economic relations which exist between EU companies, namely in Germany, and their counterparts in Turkey, while the discussion about debt, spending, and interest rates was also touched upon.

Both podcasts will be available and distributed via ENC in the upcoming weeks.

During Day 3 (24/02/2022) the ENC also organized a roundtable meeting and visit the European Parliament, in order to meet parts of the Polish Delegation, who have worked on the Mobility Package and were interested in meeting with the Polish transport organizations, as well as with other relevant stakeholders. The event was organized and hosted by the ENC in cooperation with Ipek Tekdemir, while Samuel Doveri Vesterbye co-moderated the roundtable. Discussion points surrounded Customs Union reform, Polish truck-sector concerns, Turkish truck-sector concerns, the impact of sanctions on the transport sectors, and the importance of connectivity and support for transportation, including details regarding the Mobility Package.

During Day 4 (25/02/2022) the ENC organized private meetings with Eurochambres, TOBB, and IKV. During these meetings, both the Polish and Turkish representatives were given the opportunity to discuss and exchange technical information, including recommendations from the reports, to the representatives from Europe’s leading association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry, representing over 20 million businesses in Europe. The meeting also included concluding and contextual remarks from ENC Managing Director Samuel Doveri Vesterbye about how the EU-Turkish political relationship is impacting the technical, business, and economic relationship, notably in terms of transport, connectivity, and trade. After the meeting with Eurochambres, another meeting was led by Evren Bingol from UND with members of the ‘Green Corridor Network’.