EXIT in partnership with The Citizens Pact for SEE has established a tradition of civil society/social program at the Festival by engaging large number of civil society organizations primarily from the SEE region but also from the rest of Europe.
For the fourth year in a row, the part of the Exit festival that is dealing with social issues was coordinated by the Citizens Pact for South Eastern Europe. There were three locations at the Festival where the program and the campaigns took place NGO Fairground, Agora stage and Exit Camp. Apart from the campaigns aimed at employing the young and against drug abuse, the main topics were:
Freedom of movement / visas, migrations, brain drain
Culture as a tool of social changes
Tolerance and antidiscrimination
Youth activism / EU integrations
Ecology and animal rights
Eighty organisations presented themselves at the premises of the NGO Fairground PLACE TO MOVE! There were 35 stalls with organisations from the region of the Western Balkans. Their members distributed printed material, t-shirts, and other promotional material, conducted surveys The activists presented themselves in a wide variety of programmes from presenting the bad in the psychoactive substances, the condom police, to fighters for animal rights. There were presented Cycling paths along the Danube, activities of LGBTQ organisations, international volunteer camps, humanitarian and charity organizations, youth resource centers.
The Student Union of Serbia discussed the issues of students parliamentarism at a special location, and a group of activists presented the European Council campaign All Different, All Equal.
The festival scene was located in the Ulica Starih Zanata (Street of Old Crafts), in front of the Fortress Hotel. Organisations that use culture to deal with social activism and at the central stage presented a program connected to the social part of the festival. Among others, at the Agora, discussions on mobility of the students, and also visa facilitation and youth activism. Also, we introduced the festivals from the region: Partner Youth Movement and their festivals (Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Sajeta (Tolmin, Slovenia), and the Garden Festival (Zadar, Croatia). Every night the programme ended in a quality DJ set with the line-up of DJs such as DJ Ahmaad (Sarajevo), DJ Borka (Ljubljana), DJ Pips (Osijek) and DJ Dovlaman and DJ Shpira-Maf (Novi Sad).
In the camp, the activists of the Youth of JAZAS promoted the use of condoms, and just like the previous years, they organised programs for the prevention of drug abuse. Recan Foundation collected the cans in the tricycle and the activists recycled them by making art-installations from them.
Exit 007 - Panel Discussion Knowledge Circulation
On second day of Exit festival, July 13th The Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, the Citizens' Pact for Southeast Europe and EXIT organized a panel discussionKnowledge Circulation between West Balkans and European Union. Paticipants were Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner for Science and Research, Goran Svilanovic, Stability Pact for SEE, Ana Pesikan, Minister of Science, Government of the Republic of Serbia, Davor Kinjikusic, journalist (Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence), Fuada Stankovic and Jelena Kleut, University of Novi Sad. In addition to the debate, following interactive video-internet portals was also presented: European Researchers Mobility Portal, European Network of Mobility Centers (ERA-MORE), as well as the internet database of Postgraduate Scholarships and Grant Opportunities in Social Sciences, launched by the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe. Other relevant institutions and organizations were invited to participate in this event through the presentation of their initiatives and activities related with these topics, such as BIRN (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network).
TheBalkan countries cannot wait for EU membership to become steadfastly engaged in reforms in these fields. In order to keep up the pace with reform processes in EU member states as much as possible, they have to make science and education a national priority right now. In this way, they will become capable for a more ample use of EU programs, which are already at their disposal.
Exit 007 - Panel on visa issue Serbia on the Move
At Exit 007, as a part of social campaign, on July 14th, as a followup of last years debate Myths and legends about the white schengen list-when will we be able to travel as the rest of the normal world, panel on visa issue took place, but this time titled Serbia on the Move. Participants of panel discussion were Bozidar Djelic Deputy Prime Minister, Government of the Republic of Serbia, Tanja Miscevic Director of the EU Integration Office, Republic of Serbia, Drazen Maravic Ministry of Internal Affairs, Chief of the Bureau for International Cooperation and EU Integration, Miodrag Shrestha Executive Director of the Group 484 and Hedvig Morvai Horvath Director of the Citizens' Pact for SEE.
By raising the issue of strict visa regimes against the citizens of our country, we wanted to highlight all previous efforts that have been made in order to resolve this situation and present the concrete accomplished results in this field, as well as steps that need to be defined on the path of liberalization of visa regimes.
