Seminar “EU Funds-new sports opportunities in AP Vojvodina” held
The European Affairs Fund and the Provincial Secretariat for Sports and Youth have jointly organized and held an educational and informative seminar for sports associations in the territory of AP Vojvodina at the Assembly of Vojvodina. Sports associations could see today what a European project looked like and what steps were needed to be made in order to access EU funds. Bearing in mind the EU programmes which will be open this year, which are, at the same time, a perfect opportunity for sports associations, the European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina together with the Provincial Secretariat for Sports and Youth will continue to train sports workers and associations in this field in the following period.
Predrag Novikov, director of the European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina, and Modest Dulić, provincial secretary for sports and youth, addressed the representatives of sports associations on that occasion, whilst Andrija Aleksić, head of European Fund Department, talked about the technical aspects of a project task. According to Modest Dulić, it was good news for all sports associations and branch associations that people, such as the ones of the European Affairs Fund, had recognized the opportunity to apply for EU pre-accession funds, increase the level of know-how and awareness and enhance sports in general. A year ago a professional team of the Provincial Secretariat for Sports and Youth visited local authorities with the aim of assessing the situation of sports associations and presenting them the possibilities offered, so that they could obtain funds through the secretariat’s call, as well as pointing out what benefits they could get from joining the Sports Association of Vojvodina. Dulić explained that this year’s first task was to make people from sports associations computer-literate and the following one was to train them in writing projects and applying for EU funds.
Predrag Novikov director of the European Affairs Fund, pointed out the fact that today’s meeting was another in a series of evidences to prove that the provincial administration was ready to use the opportunity offered by the EU. Today Vojvodina has more than 200 different projects a year, whereas five or six years ago, there were only four. Novikov reminded of the fact that when speaking of projects, it was actually about the amount of funds at our disposal then and at the moment. In this respect, those projects and similar ones brought more than EUR 570,000 over the past few years to our province, out of which 4 million euros were aimed at the work of the civil sector at the beginning of the year. The biggest challenge in this respect is both work on the project itself and knowledge on finalizing it, since Europe has a lot of and detailed requirements related to the issue, therefore, it is important to train all those people who wish to participate in it, in which they are assisted by the European Affairs Fund, because consultations are being held at the Fund’s premises in the Master Centre of the Novi Sad Fair.
