VUČEVIĆ HANDS OVER THE KEYS OF THE EUROPEAN YOUTH CAPITAL TO THE MAYOR OF FRENCH CITY OF AMIENS

The closing ceremony of the European Youth Capital of Europe and the handing over of the keys to the French City of Amiens, winning the title for 2020, took place on the Grand Stage of the Serbian National Theater. The event was attended by the officials of the City, the Provincial and National governments, diplomatic corps, youth organizations, whereas the Mayor of Novi Sad, Miloš Vučević, handed over the keys of the European Youth Capital to the Mayor of Amiens, Brigitte Fouré.

- This is not the end, for us this is just the beginning. We will hand over the keys to Amiens, but the doors of Novi Sad remain open to all people of good will, to the young, to those who have energy and who believe. Trust was the key to success in this wonderful story. We began to trust each other and remove barriers. The administration and youth organizations, the governmental and non-governmental sectors have come together. We started listening and understanding each other, and then everything became simple and successful. This story does not depend on the generation that has carried out the OPENS 2019; this story must be a legacy to future generations. In this way, we have at least reassured those who are thinking of leaving their country that this is and can be a good city to live in, and a good country. What Novi Sad will look like depends on us. If you do as these fantastic young people did, things can change for the better - Miloš Vučević emphasized.

Part of the closing program of the European Youth Capital was the Dialogue of the Youth and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, organized by the Umbrella Organization of the Youth of Serbia (KOMS) with the support of OPENS and within the OPENS project, the Prime Minister Opens the Doors – the Youth in Government.

OPENS Coordinator Vukašin Grozdanović, European Youth Forum President Karina Autengruben and Amiens Mayor Brigitte Fouré also addressed the ceremony. According to Vukašin Grozdanović, over the past 365 days, 1,440 activities have been implemented, in which 291440 young people from all over Serbia took part. These are a variety of programs, from the Opening Ceremony of the Capital Year and a free concert for 6,000 young people, through OPENS on a road that donated six murals, toured cities in the region and by the means of camper introduced itself to nearly 3,000 young people , which also included 3 × 3 Challengers downtown city with 16 teams from 10 countries of the world and one of the largest attendances of the FIBA event, to the open-air multimedia quiz “Young People, Great Deeds”, with nearly six thousand people participating.

In addition, as it could be heard, OPENS youth fair, OPENS day @ EXIT and OPENS play @ EXIT were held with over 40 bands from 15 cities and three countries, OPENS Color Festival for International Youth Day, OPENS Social lab with over 200 participants from all over the world, while the first OPENS district in two days involved over 16,000 young people and brought the world stars of action sports to Novi Sad.

Novi Sad, 13th December 2019