1.8 Cross-border cooperation
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Cooperation with European countries
The Department of Youth Affairs represents Lithuania in the Baltic Sea States-Expert Group on Youth Affairs, meetings of the European Network of Youth Knowledge (EuNYK), working groups of the European Knowledge Center for Youth Policy (EKCYP) andmeetings of the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ). Based on former cooperation agreements with Georgia and Moldova (2006-2007) Lithuania prepared renewed agreements on youth affairs with both countries. The Eastern Partnership made significant progress in 2014. New Association Agreements were signed with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Both the Lithuanian and the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU put a focus on strengthening youth cooperation with Eastern Partnership countries. In 2013 and 2015, Eastern Partnership Youth Forums were organised through cooperation between the Presidencies, the Commission and other stakeholders. The participants’ recommendations from these forums were brought to the attention of the Eastern Partnership Summits.
International cooperation
The Department of Youth Affairs together leads international cooperation in the field of youth policy. International relations as well as cooperation is maintained and developed with a view to exchange good practice with the institutions of other countries that implement youth policy, thereby contributing to framing of the evidence based youth policy as well as implementation in Lithuania.
Several projects of the Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus Cross Border Cooperation programme within the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) promote cross-border professional and vocational opportunities for young people, such as the one on ‘Youth Entrepreneurship Encouragement in Kaunas and Minsk regions’, whose overall objective is to enhance entrepreneurship, youth cooperation, reduction of unemployment and young people’s mobility in the regions concerned.
Lithuania’s Democracy Promotion and Development Cooperation programme is used to foster exchange between young people and policy-makers on issues of global relevance. In Lithuania, the Democracy Promotion and Development Cooperation programme (implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) provides funding for development cooperation projects which are implemented in cooperation with other governmental and non-governmental institutions in Lithuania and partner countries.