In the presence of more than 100 distinguished guests, the Western Balkans Fund (WBF) welcomed the 30 winners of the First Regional Grant Scheme co-funded by the European Union in 14 April 2022
The awarded proposals are funded by the “Support to the promotion of Civil Society regional actions in the Western Balkans” project through IPA – Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance.
On behalf of the European Union, a speech was delivered by H.E. Alexis Hupin, Chargé d’Affaires, European Union Delegation to Albania. “EU is actually a project that started based on an idea of good neighbourly relations. If we go fast forward to EU 2022, the turn of events next door, the war in Ukraine, has once more shed light on the importance of good neighbourly relations, respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity”, underlined Mr Hupin.
The WBF Executive Director, Mr Murra, underlined that “because of the everincreasing contribution and support from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and European Union, the Western Balkans Fund has become a showcase of success stories of regional cooperation”.
From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania, Deputy Minister Megi Fino considered the awarding ceremony a revealing sign of EU foreign policy success: “Without the European Integration perspective, none of this could have been achieved”