EU PROGRES

The fourth art competition for the 2014 calendar of the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme – EU PROGRES for high-school students from 25 municipalities in the South and South West Serbia, whose theme is “Responsibility Towards Nature has no Limits“, started today. The aim of this art competition is to encourage high-school students to develop their talents and gain awareness and knowledge in the fields of environmental protection, recycling, energy efficiency and prevention of pollution in their homes, neighbourhoods, municipalities and country.

Twelve best art works selected by a panel of experts will be printed on the 2014 EU PROGRES Calendar. Young authors of the selected works will receive laptops, tablet computers and cameras as awards. The school declared to be the best, based on the total number and quality of all submitted works, as well as on the basis of its commitment to organization of its internal school-level competition, will win a laptop and a projector. The competition will close on 4 November 2013, while the announcement of winners, the award presentation ceremony and the promotion of the calendar are to be organized in mid-December in Vranje.

This year’s theme of the competition “Responsibility Towards Nature has no Limits“ proceeds from the fact that the preservation of nature is one of the most important tasks of any human being, and that the waste recycling and energy efficiency constitute two most important concepts of environmental protection, because they contribute to the reduction in the need for raw materials, lower levels of energy consumption and to the preservation of natural resources for the future. High-school students are expected to present in a positive tone their positions regarding the importance of environmental protection, recycling and energy efficiency, express their views of the ways in which these concepts can improve the quality of lives in their homes, villages, municipalities or country and offer their ideas for resolving some of the existing environmental problems in their communities.

For four subsequent years, the European Union and the Government of Switzerland, through the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme EU PROGRES, have been working on the promotion of positive social values in 25 municipalities of South and South West Serbia, helping them to improve infrastructure, raise the quality of services they offer to citizens and enterprises, as well as to modernize their work in line with principles of good governance. The Programme covers the following municipalities: Ivanjica, Nova Varoš, Novi Pazar, Priboj, Prijepolje, Raška, Sjenica, Tutin, Blace, Žitorađa, Kuršumlija, Prokuplje, Bojnik, Vlasotince, Lebane, Leskovac, Medveđa, Crna Trava, Bosilegrad, Bujanovac, Vladičin Han, Vranje, Preševo, Surdulica and Trgovište.