The first Partners’ Meeting for ROSES – Cross Border Risk Awareness in Western Balkans, was organised on June 26 and 27 in Nicosia by CERIDES Centre of Excellence in Risk & Decision Sciences – EUC, one of the partners of the project. ROSES is funded by the Directorate-General from European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations
ROSES is a very ambitious project. It differs from many other similar projects in the Balkans and elsewhere in that it primarily invests in cross-border cooperation between Western Balkan states in prevention and preparedness rather than in dealing with natural disasters after they have occurred.
The biggest obstacle to this effort is the peculiar morphology of the terrain and the fact that most of the Balkans consists of mountainous and rugged areas, which makes cooperation between states quite challenging.
The ROSES Project brings together a number of balkan countries, namely Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro, as well Cyprus, which is not a balkan state but participates fully in the project, offering its extensive expertise and experience in the development and implementation of civil protection projects through CERIDES / EUC.
In their first meeting in Nicosia, partners had the opportunity to discuss the objectives of the project and to examine the implementation of ROSES in its first six months as well as to focus on the added value that this implementation will bring in each and every phase of the project.
Particular emphasis was placed on the dissemination and communication part as it is particularly important that the affected communities not only know about the project but also actively participate in the effort, both at a national and at a local level as ROSES aims at strengthening cross-border cooperation, especially in difficult border areas.
It was agreed that partners come together again in September in a workshop which will be held in Korçë, Albania at the end of September. In the meantime all parties agreed to continue building a network to make the implementation of the project as successful as possible.
The partners of the project are
University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Montenegro Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina
European University Cyprus (CERIDES)
Albanian National Civil Protection Agency
Centre for Development and Democratisation of Institutions (Albania)
Direction for Protection and Rescue of the Republic of North Macedonia
General Secretariat for Civil Protection (Greece)
