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Awarding Ceremony Regional Youth Essay Competition

13 June 2016

On 10th June 2016 the winners in the Regional Youth Online Essay Contest "Young people from Southeast Europe for the prosperity of the region" were awarder in the Plenary Hall of the National Assembly of Bulgaria. Certificates of Award were presented to the winners by the Speaker of the Bulgarian parliament and President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the South East EuropeanCooperation Process Tsetska Tsacheva.

First prize went to Alexandra - Bianca Popescu from Romania for her essay "What choice have young people from Southeast Europe?". Second ranked was Alisa Ciornaia from Moldova for the essay "Active citizenship and freedom of expression - the choice of young people from Southeast Europe." At the third place, there are two contestants from Slovenia - Nika Kobetic and Peter Suhodolcan.

The prize for the winner is a three-day visit to Brussels and meetings with MEPs and representatives of European institutions working in the field of youth policies. Laptop is the prize for second place. The wo participants who share the third place, were rewarded with tablets.

"With this event we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the SEECP, as if there is symbolism in the fact that our young laureates are almost contemporaries of establishing of our regional process, said the Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria. For us, as politicians responsible to fulfill the expectations of the citizens of SEE is very useful to hear what excites young people and how they see the integration processes in our region."

The competition registered 45 contestants from 9 countries of SEECP. Parliament Speaker thanked the authoritative international jury of seven representatives of the parliaments of Sofia, Podgorica, Prishtina, Tirana, Bucharest, Ankara and Skopje.

The competition, which was aimed at young people aged up to 29 years, was announced on the website of the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation in SEE and the websites of the Parliaments of the SEECP on December 1, 2015. Assessment procedure was conducted online, each participant had may submit only one essay written in English. The essays were evaluated on an anonymous basis.

The ceremony was attended by SEECP PA delegations and representatives of international organizations who gathered in Bulgaria to participate in the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly "20 years SEECP: The region - new realities and shared perspectives."