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Forty-five European Business Studies graduate students,
from the international university Alma Mater Europaea of the
European Academy of Sciences and Arts, visited the European institutions
in Brussels and we were there with them. We asked the students, many of whom also
work in Croatian government, if they could see their future in the
European institutions and what they actually know about how the
European institutions work. Do they know how to obtain European funds and become
part of an efficient and rational government administration?
People that are interested in acquiring European funds,
definitely need to inform themselves about the process,
otherwise they would not go for it. Of course the path is long and hard.
It takes a lot of hard work, and sorry to say, we still don't have enough
experts that would give you good information about which steps to take.
In our case, sometimes we have to ask for information from our colleagues,
that have already completed proposals, including obtaining European funds.
You have had an opportunity to complete a European fund grant proposal at the
university. How much actual coursework is there, at the Alma Mater,
about European institutions? - To do such a project you need to have a lot
of theoretical knowledge about how the European institutions work.
We have a good foundation to start. However, this is not an actual grant
proposal, it is something that we are learning from, and in the future we can
use this knowledge to acquire European funds.
If some high school student asks you, can you explain in a simple way how the
European Union operates? - Not in a simple way. It is complicated, really.
There are a lot of rules, a lot of criteria that needs to be met,
and I think that we, as a small country, are sailing in the right direction.
We just have to be patient.
You work in Vojnić, what do you think how far is Vojnić from European Union?
Far, far away I think. Even though we, as citizens, participate in elections,
but I believe that not much is going to change.
How can this be changed? Let's say with the knowledge that you obtain at
Alma Mater, can you change something in your community and then proceed on?
I believe it would be better to start changing the bigger counties and
then proceed with smaller ones.
It seems that there are numerous options for getting European funds, Do you have
people in your county that would be capable of writing a good proposal and
get those funds?
Of course there are people that are capable of this. We, as a group of local
public administration workers have already succeeded in getting some funds.
They are not huge numbers, but it helps us nonetheless. It can be done and
it has been done. - For what purpose did you get the funds?
For the roads. The proposal was successful and the project is being
completed as we speak.
Are there enough people in the ministry where you work, that would be able to
write all the necessary papers for a successful proposal?
For now, there are not enough people with this kind of knowledge, but i think
that there are a lot of good advisers that can help with writing these
proposals.
We did a proposal for the blind and for partially sighted persons.
We made a library train that drives through four Croatian cities and three
Slovene cities 7 days a week, every day the train stays in a different city.
The train would stay there for the day, and blind and partially sighted
people can go there for seminars, workshops, borrowing books, or
maybe just to hang out.
You can design proposals, you can obtain European funds. Does this mean
that your future is secure?
Yes, I believe my future is pretty secure.
What is your experience from Slovenia? How much did Slovenians know about the
European Union before they entered it?
Slovenians did not know much and they were not ready for the EU.
Many Slovenians did not know how many opportunities were available in the
European Union. All the business owners have a huge potential market
and can start working with an entire European Union, or even wider, instead
of just selling locally. However, they need some knowledge to do so.
They need to know the languages, they need to know how to communicate because
the vocabulary is different than on the local scale.
Because of that some people have trouble organizing themselves for this
new way of doing business, they just want to keep on doing business
in the same manner that they did before Slovenia or Croatia entered the EU.
That is why we created this program, to educate young people in the new ways of
thinking, new ways of doing business, new ways of work and new ways of
communicating and I believe we are on the right track.
Do you think that people in Croatia know enough about the European Union?
Yes and no, they know a lot about it, but they do not know how the
institutions work. The European Union, as itself, is a very complicated
organization. People may think that they know a lot about it but they do
not know enough.