Civil society organizations from BiH can take part in the Erasmus+: Youth in Action Programme as:

Partners in the following activities:

• Youth Exchanges, European Voluntary Service or Mobility of youth workers in projects within Key Action 1;
• Strategic partnerships in the field of youth in projects within Key Action 2 (under specific conditions);
• Meetings between young people and decision-makers in the field of youth in projects within Key Action 3;

Applicants in the following projects:

Capacity-building in the field of youth, in particular in the context of the Western Balkans Youth Window, within Key Action 2. Each project must include at least one mobility activity: Youth Exchange, European Voluntary Service or Mobility of Youth Workers, corresponding to the activities within Key Action 1.

The Contact Point for ERASMUS+ Youth in Action Programme is PRONI Centre for Youth Development.

Total number of young people from BiH that have participated in activities of Erasmus+ Youth program in the period 2014-2016 are 3369. Out of that number, 2661 young people participated in Key Action 1, 24 young people participated in Key Action 3 and 684 young people participated in Western Balkans Youth Window component.

With regard to the mobility of students, BiH is the only country in the Western Balkans which has not joined in full Erasmus+ EU Programme, the Youth component. Thus, it has limited access to mobility of young people through this programme as a Partner Country.

Nevertheless, BiH academic community has signed numerous bilateral agreements on   international cooperation with foreign institutions, for example, from Austria, Croatia, Egypt, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland (mutual agreements between colleges, universities, institutes, etc.) that also cover the field of science and research, as well as joint projects. This type of cooperation agreement mainly involves individual participation of BiH researchers in research projects. The greatest involvement in this type of cooperation is in the biomedical and technical sciences.

The BiH Law on Foreigners (Zakon o strancima Bosne i Hercegovine) defines the legal framework applying to foreign volunteers.

Article 49 of this Law defines general requirements for granting temporary residence, and Article 57 defines the temporary residence of volunteers:

“Temporary residence may be granted to a foreigner who, along with the requirements of Article 49 (General requirements for granting temporary residence) of this Law, also fulfils the following conditions:

a) he/she is not under 18 nor over 65 years of age,

b) he/she possesses a volunteering contract concluded with an agency, institution, humanitarian organisation, association, or foundation in BiH in which he/she is volunteering,

c) encloses a project where he/she is engaged, or a document providing the volunteering work    scheme, job description and accompanying duties, number of agents, volunteering period, mentorship and working hours,

d) organisation in which the foreigner is volunteering has signed a policy of obligatory insurance and assumed the responsibility for the foreigner during the volunteering period, including the costs of subsistence, accommodation, health insurance and return. Temporary residence of a foreign volunteer shall be granted for a period not exceeding one year, and may exceptionally be extended under the same conditions applied for approval of residence if the project of the foreigner’s engagement lasts longer than a year.”