MR. STANKOVIC AND AMBASSADOR OF FINLAND IN BUJANOVAC

10. February 2014.

On Friday, February 7, the President of the Coordination Body, Prof. Zoran Stankovic, met in Bujanovac with Ambassador of Finland, H.E. Pekka Orpana. This was the first visit of Ambassador Orpana to Bujanovac and an opportunity to become acquainted with the Coordination Body’s activities for the improvement of many aspects of life of the municipality’s residents.

Prof. Stankovic and Ambassador Orpana visited two secondary schools in Bujanovac, which are "Sveti Sava" and "Sezai Surroi", where they spoke with the principals and staff of the said schools. The visit to the schools was part of the "Agora 2" project, which is implemented by the Center for Regionalism from Novi Sad, by which a greater cooperation between the two schools is to be achieved through the creation of secondary school cooperatives, through which the students from Bujanovac will work together on developing a magazine for secondary school students.

Upon visiting the secondary schools, Prof. Stankovic and Ambassador Orpana, together with the Major of Bujanovac, Nagip Arifi, the Director of the Center for Regionalism, Alexander Popov, and the Head of the OSCE Office in Bujanovac, Eric Manton, participated in a panel discussion on overcoming the inter-ethnic distance.

The speakers at the panel discussion sent a message to the secondary school students that it was necessary for them to establish cooperation and mutual trust, while the Ambassador of Finland said that the key to achieving that was the knowledge of the official language of the country, because only in that way could they take advantage of the opportunities provided to young people.

Source: Coordination Body