The Regional Cooperation Council and the ETF renew their cooperation to build human capital in South Eastern Europe

The Regional Cooperation Council’s (RCC) Secretary General, Goran Svilanovic, and newly appointed Director of the European Training Foundation (ETF), Cesare Onestini, signed an agreement on continuation of cooperation between the two organisations, in Brussels today.

The two organisations expressed their satisfaction with their cooperation to date in the areas of skills and vocational education and training (VET), and the employment agenda, and are looking to take it forward, particularly in the light of the RCC-developed Multi-annual Action Plan (MAP) on a Regional Economic Area (REA) in the Western Balkans, endorsed at this year’s Western Balkans Summit in Trieste.

“Development of a globally competitive skills base and research systems, which foster innovation are key factor for economic recovery and sustained growth in the Western Balkans. The region needs to develop measures to provide better quality education, strengthening the link with the needs of the private sector, and ensuring development of highly skilled labour force throughout the education systems”, said Svilanovic adding that only the digital skills development is an explicit measure in MAP, with clear emphasis on the development of research skills in particular of young researchers in the region.

The ETF’s Cesare Onestini reiterated that the EU enlargement process and related policies explicitly and/or implicitly refer to the importance of skills and vocational education and training for economic development, stressing that the region’s efforts on this agenda should be supported by making skills more prominent in the implementation of the investment and trade agenda, including recognition of VET qualifications in the mobility agenda, and enhancing  the digital skills agenda through ETF products and services.

The cooperation agreement for period 2018-20 envisages widening the cooperation to include monitoring and collecting data on education indicators, quality of education, RCC’s Employment and Social Affairs Platform (ESAP), and support to the MAP agenda in recognising qualifications and skills development in the region.

The signing ceremony was attended by Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, Director for the Western Balkans at the European Commission (EC) Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR).