The School for Young Serb and Romanian Political Leaders is an seven-month training and exchange program for Serb and Romanian members of national party leadership or leaders of youth party branches, aged 18-35. The program will be organized by the Foundation for Pluralism in partnership with Civic Initiatives (CI), a Belgrade based non-governmental organization, in Timisoara between February and August 2001. Building on the Foundation for Pluralism experience of cross border programs this is the first training program for a mixed Serb and Romanian group of young political activists exposing the participants to a non partisan regional interactive learning experience.

The School for Young Serb and Romanian Political Leaders is a pilot project in the region. Its success could be replicated in the Balkans leading to the set up of a regional network of young political leaders.

The participants will acquire communication skills, will learn to negotiate, set up coalitions and do strategic planning. They will share real political life stories and will analyze how the knowledge acquired during seminars influenced their performance. They will have the opportunity to set up common standards for effective political activity and develop interpersonal relationship. Eventually they will set up a network to exchange information, opinions and prospect opportunities for future cross border projects.

Lectures on common interest topics such as: political stability in the region, pitfalls of the economic reform during the transition period, the fight against corruption, and the set up of common standards in public policy will represent unique learning experiences presented by guest speakers from Romania.

A study visit of participants to offices of local MPs and representatives of local public officials will expose the participants to a hands-on experience on how public elected officials work in both countries.

After the completion of the program the participants will acquire the skills necessary for effective political activity and to get access to higher decision levels in the party hierarchy in both countries. The School for Serb and Romanian Political Leaders will provide an opportunity for the young leaders to exercise political dialogue, negotiation and compromise, the hallmarks of democratic societies. Serbs and Romanians will identify common challenges during the seminars and will look for possible common solutions. They will learn how to set up basic common standards for their political activity, how to communicate inside their organization, but also with the media and the citizens. And last, but not least, they will learn that besides lots of things that divide them, there are more things they have in common. Serbs and Romanians will learn how to communicate effectively, how to share information and build common trust. They will be able to establish long lasting interpersonal relations that will be valuable assets for co-operation in the region when they will become political decision-makers. Institutional relationships are first of all people relationships.