CYN: City of Zagreb Patronizes the Youth

Emina Buzinkic, Drazen Puljic and Tomislav Tomasevic from CYN

The Croatian Youth Network (CYN) warned at a press conference held today at the serious defects in the contents and the implementation of the Zagreb Competition for funding of youth projects.

The City of Zagreb opened a public competition for projects submitted by youth associations for the youth on July 29. This is the first youth financing competition since the adoption of the City Youth Action Programme two years ago.

The competition, believe CYN representatives, only confirms that positions on youth presented by the city elders during the Right to a City campaign were the true one � the City Administration is not prepared nor capable of implementing its own youth policies.

According to CYN, it is visible on the very formal level that the competition was not created to stimulate projects of highest possible quality. It was announced open in midsummer, with very brief application deadline of only 21 days since its publication, and the City Administration published it only in �Vjesnik� daily and on the Zagreb City official website, only to comply to the minimal requirements.

According to CYN, there was obviously no intention to spread the information among the youth associations. What is not clear, commented CYN representatives, is whether this was simply a matter of lack of professionalism on the behalf of administration, or was such omission intentional.

In addition, the competition is confusing and incomplete, It practically repeats, ad verbatim the City Youth Action Programme, covering all areas of youth policy and almost half of the measures the Programme lists. The competition is, in fact, presented as a measure that should provide solution for all other measures, and the obvious intention is for the City to transfer the responsibility for implementation of youth policies to the youth associations.

Finally, the selection and the composition of the Commission that will decide on merits of individual proposals completed the picture of the way the City Administration views the youth. The Commission was named in a closed procedure; six of its nine members come from the political administrative structures. The other three members are independent experts, one of whom is special education teacher and another works in the area of youth addictions.

"The youth � instead of seen as active participants in social processes � is primarily treated as deviation and problems, a group that ought to be controlled politically�, said Tomislav Tomasevic, CYN representative.

He added that this view is not only contrary to the standards set in EU youth policies, but also to the declared premises of the very City Youth Action Programme.

Therefore, CYN has decided to present its own set of demands to the City. First, future competitions should be announced with a more appropriate deadline and clear criteria and priorities. Second, the procedure for selection and the composition of the Commission should change, so that it can act as expert body and not an instrument of control over the youth. Finally, the City of Zagreb should immediately take an active role in the implementation of the City Youth Action Programme and prepare, by the end of November 2006, an operational plan for its implementation over the next two years.