THE FIFTH EVENT UNDER “SMUG” PROJECT, NOVO MESTO, SLOVENIA

Post author:neda.brajenovic
Post published:10/12/2018
Post category:2018. year / projects

On the 7th and 8th of December 2018, the last debate of the project ‘Small municipalities against euroscepticism was held in Novo Mesto, Slovenia.

Gathering over 100 participants, the event hosted lots of discussions, exchanges of experience and socializing on the international level.

On the first day, the audience was greeted by Mr. Boštjan Groebler, deputy mayor of the Municipality Novo Mesto and Mr. Dragutin Hendelja, vice-president of LAG PRIZAG.

After a brief introduction to the project and results of previous events, a presentation about the EU and Slovenia was held by dr. Milan Brglez, vice president of the comittee of the National Assembly for the European Union and former president of the National Assembly.

Following, a press conference was held and workshop ‘Let your voice be heard’. The audience was divided into 4 groups:

group on the theme ‘What can we do for a better EU’ – how small citizens like us can contribute to the whole idea of the European Union
group on the theme ‘What do we need as EU citizens’ – what small citizens need to feel like a part of EU
group on the theme ‘How do we fight euroscepticism’ – establishing a positive attitude towards EU and designing a informative page ‘All we need to know about EU’.
group on the theme ‘Euroscepticism form the aspect of new members, old members and non-members – and what we have in common’

All groups had interesting discussions about the stated issues.

In the afternoon, the group visited Dolenjska museum that was built with help of EU funding.

On the second day, presentations of associations were held: Society of Mach’s heritage under Gorjanci, Institute for Slovenian Emigration and Migration and Nefiks. All organizations are actively working with projects and EU funds.

The last workshop ‘Designing a campaign for eurooptimism’, was held as a World Cafe. Participants shared thoughts about various media and marketing solutions that can be used to foster eurooptimism, events which can be organized to bring people closer together, and ways to improve the institutional support for a better EU climate.

After summarizing the results, all delegations gave their own viewpoint on the things they learned during the 2 days. In the afternoon, a visit to GRM, Center for biotechnology and tourism was held where participants saw various good practices in the field of vinery, agriculture and education.