The Executive Director of Balkan Forum, Astrit Istrefi, in an interview with CIVIL Media, says that the Western Balkan countries need to work together to mitigate the effects of the energy crisis.

He adds that the agenda of Balkan Forum, in addition to including questionable foreign policies, also puts an accent on building bridges between societies that once used to be in conflict or still are, which are hostages to the irresponsibility of politicians.

“The countries should work together not only as the Western Balkans, but also broader with Europe and at the global level, to mitigate the effects of the energy crisis”, says Astrit Istrefi.

Istrefi adds that since the beginning of the Balkan Forum initiative, good education and development of societies has been supported, in order to prevent the so-called “brain drain” from the country, but also emphasizes the work with the diaspora, not for it to help financially, but to share experiences that will help the development of the Western Balkan countries.

Balkan Forum is one of the initiators of the establishment of the “LogEx“ network.

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The LogEx community was established in December 2021. It is a partnership between universities and academics, civil society organizations and business actors from the Western Balkans and the diaspora in the region. LogEx is a consortium of different organizations with a common idea such as circular economy, security, development of strategies on how to continue the focus on these topics, with the purpose to promote and include different entities of society, such as the business sector, local authorities, central governments, to improve legislation, as well as measures that need to be supported. The primary goal is how to attract the attention of the young people for them to be more aware about the potential, personal development and certainly employment through circular economy.