7th Ministerial Meeting within the Western Balkans Platform was held on June 25th-26th in Brussels, with the aim of supporting reform processes in the field of Education, when it comes to countries that are candidates or potential candidates for EU membership, as a continuation of the initiative launched in 2012 in the city of Danilovgrad.
WB PET meetings aim to identify common priorities at the level of the Region, as well as the possibility of developing these ideas through possible joint projects supported by EU funds. For the second time in a row, besides ministers of Education, this event also gathers ministers of Science, in order to establish a closer relation between these two related and inseparable areas.
At the event, Recognition was the topic that was mainly discussed, as well as the activities of a working group which deals with academic recognition of qualifications, with the aim of developing models for direct recognition of qualifications in Western Balkans, till the accession to the EU. The Regional Cooperation Council will be directly involved in this initiative.
During the Ministerial Meeting within the Western Balkans Platform, held in Brussels, Minister of Education, Dr. Damir Šehović, proposed the establishment of the Regional Quality Agency in the field of Higher Education. This entity would, as he emphasized, deal with control and quality assurance in the field of Higher Education, as well as accreditation of higher education institutions. In that way, institutions in the Region would be accredited according to the same criteria and in accordance with the European standards. In addition, he proposed activities related to establishing a system of ranking higher education institutions in the Region, and this initiative was supported by the participants.
The Delegation of Montenegro was led by the Minister of Education, Dr. Damir Šehović, and the other members of the Delegation were: Mubera Kurpejović, Director General of the Directorate of Higher Education; Irma Nišević, Head of the Cabinet of the Minister of Education; Marko Vukašinović, Head of the Department for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Education and Vanja Drljević, the Coordinator of the Erasmus+ Office in Montenegro.
More information on the WB PET Initiative can be found at the following website: https://ec.europa.eu/education/events/7th-meeting-western-balkans-platform_en
